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Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains

Board on Science and Technology for International

Development, Office of International Affairs, National

Research Council

Lost

LostLost

Lost

Crops

CropsCrops

Crops

ofof

Africa

AfricaAfrica

Africa

volume I

Grains

Board on Science and Technology for International Development

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS

Washington, D.C. 1996

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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of

the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National

Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The

members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competence and

with regard for appropriate balance.

The report was reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved

by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the

National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

This report was prepared by an ad hoc advisory panel of the Board on Science and Technology

for International Development, Office of International Affairs, National Research Council. Staff

support was funded by the Bureau for Africa, Bureau for Research and Development, Office of

Nutrition, and Office of Research, Agency for International Development, under Grant No.

DPE-5545-A-00-8068-00.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-86876

ISBN 0-309-04990-3

This document may be reproduced solely for educational purposes without the written permission of

the National Academy of Sciences.

Printed in the United States of America

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A NOTE FROM THE SPONSORS

For two decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID)

has supported various reports from BOSTID's Innovation Program. This

current one, on the under exploited cereals of Africa, is particularly timely.

Africa's nutrition situation is deteriorating, and this is a serious concern.

Much of the population is more vulnerable to malnutrition and starvation

than ever before. Clearly, the problem needs tangible and sustained

support from the international community, but it also needs a host of fresh

ideas.

This book offers many such ideas and is part of a commitment AID

made at the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) in December 1992.

There, member countries, nongovernmental organizations, and the

international community pledged to eliminate or substantially reduce

starvation, widespread undernutrition, and micronutrient malnutrition within

this decade.

By highlighting the broad potential for Africa's own native biodiversity to

reduce the vulnerability of seriously at-risk people to food shortages, the

book could become a major contributor to the ICN objectives. The so-called

"lost crops" obviously can help provide food security in their native areas,

which include many parts of Africa threatened with hunger. At the same

time, however, maintaining the diversity of these ancient crops will protect

options for the rest of the world to use.

For these and other reasons, we are pleased to have been this

project's major sponsors. We hope the wealth of information in the following

pages will stimulate much interest and many subsequent activities. If that

occurs, the now largely overlooked resources described herein should

contribute substantially toward achieving the goal of eliminating hunger and

malnutrition by decade's end.

DAVID A. OOT

OFFICE OF HEALTH AND NUTRITION

JOHN HICKS

BUREAU FOR AFRICA

NAN BORTON

OFFICE OF FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE

iii

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PANEL

NORMAN E. BORLAUG, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y

Trigo, Mexico City, Mexico, Chairman

JOHN AXTELL, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette,

Indiana

GLENN W. BURTON, Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Agricultural

Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tifton, Georgia

JACK R. HARLAN, Department of Agronomy, University of Illinois (retired),

New Orleans, Louisiana

KENNETH O. RACHIE, Winrock International (retired), Pensacola, Florida

***

NOEL D. VIETMEYER, Senior Program Officer, Board on Science and

Technology for International Development, Africa Crops Study Director and

Scientific Editor

STAFF

F.R. RUSKIN, BOSTID Editor

MARK R. DAFFORN, Staff Associate

ELIZABETH MOUZON, Senior Secretary

BRENT SIMPSON, MUCIA Intern

DONALD OSBORN, MUCIA Intern

MICHAEL McD. Dow, Acting Director, BOSTID

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Contributors

By 1993, more than 1,000 people had participated in BOSTID's overall study

of the lost crops of Africa. Most had participated by nominating species of

grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, oilseeds, spices, sweeteners, and

beverage plants worthy of inclusion. In a sense, all these people were contributors

to this, the first product from the study. However, the following list includes only

those who provided technical details that became incorporated into various

chapters of this particular book. To all the contributors, both listed and unlisted,

we are truly grateful.

AFRICA

SAMUEL AGBOIRE, National Cereals Research Institute, Bida, Niger State,

Nigeria

OLUPOMI AJAYI, ICRISAT-WASIP, Kano, Nigeria

O.C. AWORH, Department of Food Technology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan,

Nigeria

FORSON K. AYENSU, Plant Genetic Resources Unit, Crops Research Institute,

Bunso, Ghana

JACOB A. AYUK-TAKEM, Institut de la Recherche Agronomique, Yaoundé,

Cameroon

ROBERT CUDJOE AZIAWOR, Grains Development Board, Hohoe, Volta

Region, Ghana

PAUL BECKMAN, Eden Foundation, Zinder, Niger

M.A. BENHURA, Department of Biochemistry, University of Zimbabwe,

Harare, Zimbabwe

JACQUES BEYO, Institut de Recherche Agronomique, Maroua, Cameroon

STEPHEN CARR, Zomba, Malawi

CARL W. CASTLETON, International Section, Animal and Plant Health

Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

ABEBE DEMISSIE, Plant Germplasm Exploration and Collection, Plant Genetic

Resources Centre/Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

SUSAN BURNELL EDWARDS, The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa

University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

TEWOLDE BERHAN G/EGZIABHER, The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa

University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

SAHR N. FOMBA, Mangrove Swamp Rice Research Station, West Africa Rice

Development Association, Freetown, Sierra Leone

WALTER FROLICH, Sorghum and Millet Section, Nyankpala Agricultural

Experiment Station, Crops Research Institute, Tamale, Ghana

CONTRIBUTORS vi

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KIFLE GOZEGUZE, Regional Soil and Water Conservation Department,

Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

S.C. GUPTA, Regional Sorghum and Millets Improvement Program,

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Bulawayo,

Zimbabwe

LELAND R. HOUSE, Regional Sorghum and Millets Improvement Program,

Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

ISRAEL AFAM JIDEANI, School of Science and Science Education, Abubakar

Tafawa-Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria

TANTIGEGN KEREDE KASSA, Zonal Team in Soil Conservation, Bahrder,

Ethiopia

HILDA KIGUTHA, Department of Home Economics, Egerton University,

Njoro, Kenya

ABEBE KIRUB, Information Services, Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia

J. MAUD KORDYLAS, Arkloyd's Food Laboratory, Douala, Cameroon

HELMUT KREIENSIEK, Agriculture and Soil Conservation, German

AgroAction -FSAP, Maseru, Lesotho

K. ANAND KUMAR, Pearl Millet Program, Sahelian Centre, International

Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Niamey, Niger

Plus MICHAEL KYESMU, Department of Botany, University of Jos, Jos,

Plateau State, Nigeria

JOYCE LOWE, Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan,

Ibadan, Nigeria

GUEYE MAMADOU, West African Microbiological Research Centre, Centre

National de Recherches Agronomiques, Bambey, Senegal

FERNANDO A.B. MARCELINO, Instituto de Investigação Agronómica,

Huambo, Angola

P.C.J. MAREE, Department of Agronomy and Pastures, University of

Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, Cape Province, South Africa

MATEOS MEGISO, Soil Conservation Department, Ministry of Agriculture,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

GEBRU TEKA MEHERETA, Natural Resources Department, Ministry of

Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I.M. MHARAPARA, Research and Specialist Services, Chiredzi Research

Station, Chiredzi, Zimbabwe

KOUAMÉ MIEZAN, West Africa Rice Development Association, Bouake, Ivory

Coast

GETACHEW BEYENE MISKER, Community Forestry Department, Ministry of

Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

HELEN Moss, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, University of

Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

CONTRIBUTORS vii

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S.C. NANA-SINKAM, Joint ECA/FAO Agriculture Division, United Nations

Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

NLANDU NE NSAKU, Direction des Services Généraux Techniques, Gitega,

Burundi

J.C. OBIEFUNA, Department of Crop Production, Federal University of

Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

NORMAN F.G. RETHMAN, Department of Plant Production, University of

Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

GREGORY SAXON, Tete, Mozambique

A. SHAKOOR, The Dryland Farming Research and Development Project,

Ministry of Agriculture, Katumani, Machakos, Kenya

P. SOMAN, Pearl Millet Program, Sahelian Centre, International Crops Research

Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Niamey, Niger

P.S. STEYN, Division of Food Science and Technology, National Food Research

Institute, Pretoria, South Africa

JOHN R.N. TAYLOR, Department of Food Science, University of Pretoria,

Pretoria, South Africa

JANE TOLL, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics,

Niamey, Niger

JENS VON BARGEN, Nyankpala Agricultural Experiment Station, Crops

Research Institute, Tamale, Ghana

ADEBACHO WATCHISO, Community Forestry Department, Ministry of

Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

G.K. WEBER, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria

J.H. WILLIAMS, Pearl Millet Program, Sahelian Centre, International Crops

Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Niamey, Niger

OTHER REGIONS

DAVID J. ANDREWS, Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska,

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

DJIBRIL AW, Resident Mission, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

JACQUES BARRAU, Laboratoire d'Ethnobotanique-Biogéographie, Muséum

National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

J.P. BAUDOIN, Phytotechnie des Régions Chaudes, Faculté des Sciences

Agronomiques de Gembloux, Gembloux, Belgium

DONALD F. BEECH, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

Organization, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

GILLES BEZANÇON, Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le

Développement en Coopération de Montpellier, Montpellier, France

PAULA BRAMEL-COX, Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University,

Manhattan, Kansas, USA

CONTRIBUTORS viii

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FRANK BREYER, Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria

RICHARD L. BRUGGERS, International Programs Research Section, U.S.

Department of Agriculture, Denver Wildlife Research Center, Denver,

Colorado, USA

LYNNE BRYDON, Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool,

Liverpool, England

WAYNE CARLSON, Maskal Forages, Inc., Caldwell, Idaho, USA

GEOFFREY P. CHAPMAN, Wye College, University of London, Wye, Kent,

England

W. DEREK CLAYTON, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey,

England

MAX D. CLEGG, Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,

Nebraska, USA

ELIZABETH COLSON, Department of Anthropology, University of California,

Berkeley, El Cerrito, California, USA

WILLIAM CRITCHLEY, Centre for Development Cooperation Services, Free

University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

RONNY R. DUNCAN, Department of Agronomy, University of Georgia,

Georgia Experiment Station, Griffin, Georgia, USA

ROBERT P. EAGLESFIELD, International Crops Research Institute for the

Semi-Arid Tropics, Andhra Pradesh, India

JOHANNES M.M. ENGELS, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute,

New Delhi, India

CONRAD L. EVANS, Office of International Programs, Oklahoma State

University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

CHARLES A. FRANCIS, Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska,

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

DONALD FRYREAR, Big Spring Experiment Station, U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Big Spring, Texas, USA

ZEWDIE WOLDE GEBRIEL, Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen

Agricultural University, Wageningen, Netherlands

P. GEERVANI, College of Home Science, Andhra Pradesh Agricultural

University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

DAVID GIBBON, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia,

Norwich, Norfolk, England

HEINER E. GOLDBACH, Abta Agrarökologie, Institut für Geowissenschaften

der Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

PAMELA M. GOODE, Environmental Resources Unit, University of Salford,

Salford, England

DAVID O. HALL, Center for Energy and Environment, Princeton University,

Princeton, New Jersey, USA

WAYNE W. HANNA, Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, U.S.

Department of Agriculture, Tifton, Georgia, USA

NAZMUL. HAQ, International Centre for Under-Utilized Crops, King's College

London, London, England

CONTRIBUTORS ix

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G. HARINARAYANA, All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project,

College of Agriculture, Shivajinagar, Pune, India

DALE D. HARPSTEAD, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State

University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

FRANK NIGEL HEPPER, The Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,

Richmond, Surrey, England

KHIDIR W. HILU, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and

State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

R.C. HOSENEY, Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University,

Manhattan, Kansas, USA

CARL S. HOVELAND, Department of Agronomy, University of Georgia,

Athens, Georgia, USA

CATHERINE HOWARTH, Welsh Plant Breeding Station, University College of

Wales, Old College, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales

CLARISSA T. KIMBER, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University,

College Station, Texas, USA

ART KLATT, Division of Agriculture, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater,

Oklahoma, USA

A. DE KOCHKO, Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis,

Missouri, USA

WENDY KRAMER, Administrative Librarian, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

J.M. LOCK, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

DAVID G. LYNN, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago,

Illinois, USA

CLARE MADGE, School of Geography, The University of Birmingham,

Egbaston, Birmingham, England

JAMES D. MAGUIRE, Department of Agronomy and Soils, Washington State

University, Pullman, Washington, USA

A. BRUCE MAUNDER, DeKalb Plant Genetics, Lubbock, Texas, USA

DAN H. MECKENSTOCK, INTSORMIL/Programa Internacional de Sorgo y

Mijo, c/o Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

ALEMU MENGISTU, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin,

Madison, Wisconsin, USA

GIOVANNI MIGNONI, Risanamento, Agro Industriale Zuccheri, Roma, Inc.,

Rome, Italy

FRED R. MILLER, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M

University, College Station, Texas, USA

NOBUO MURATA, Eco-Physiology Research Division, Tropical Agriculture

Research Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

K.V. RAMAIAH, International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid

Tropics, Andhra Pradesh, India

CONTRIBUTORS x

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K.C. REDDY, Agency for International Development - Niamey, U.S.

Department of State, Washington, D.C., USA

PAUL RICHARDS, Department of Anthropology, University College London,

London, England

K.W. RILEY, IDRC/National Hill Crops Improvement Program, Kathmandu,

Nepal

JAMES L. RIOPEL, Department of Biology, University of Virginia,

Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

LLOYD W. ROONEY, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M

University, College Station, Texas, USA

RACHEL SAFMAN, Agriculture and Natural Resources, CARE, New York,

New York, USA

DAVID J. SAMMONS, Department of Agronomy, University of Maryland,

College Park, Maryland, USA

SHAO QIQUAN, Department of Crop Science and Plant Ecology, University of

Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

BLUEBELL R. STANDAL, Department of Food Science and Nutrition,

University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

MARGARET STEENTOFT, Petersfield, Hampshire, England

MICHAEL STOCKING, Soils and Land Use Development Studies, University

of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, England

ROBERT J. THEODORATUS, Department of Anthropology, Colorado State

University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

H.D. TINDALL, Ampthill, Bedford, England

J.H. Topps, Division of Agricultural Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of

Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland

RICK J. VAN DEN BELDT, Winrock International Institute for Agricultural

Development, Bangkok, Thailand

DAT VAN TRAN, Plant Production and Protection Division, Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

PARESH VERMA, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department

of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

REMKO B. VONK, Agriculture and Natural Resources, CARE, New York, New

York, USA

C.E. WEST, Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural

University, Wageningen, Netherlands

JOSIEN M.C. WESTPHAL-STEVELS, Department of Plant Taxonomy,

Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, Netherlands

ERICA F. WHEELER, Centre for Human Nutrition, The London School of

Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England

G.E. WICKENS, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England

REBECCA WOOD, Crestone, Colorado, USA

CONTRIBUTORS xi

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CONTRIBUTORS xii

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Preface

The purpose of this report is to draw worldwide attention to traditional

African cereals and especially to their potential for expanding and diversifying

African and world food supplies. Africa is seen by many observers as a basket

case—a vast region incorporating more than 40 nations that appears unlikely to

be able to feed its burgeoning population in the coming years. To many

observers, there seem to be no ready solutions. Some have given up hope that

anything can be done.

What has been almost entirely overlooked, however, is that throughout that

vast continent can be found more than 2,000 native grains, roots, fruits, and other

food plants. These have been feeding people for thousands of years but most are

being given no attention whatever today. We have called them the ''lost crops of

Africa."

Among the 2,000 lost foods are more than 100 native grasses whose seeds

are (or have been) eaten. These can be found from Mauritania to Madagascar.

Only a handful are currently receiving concerted research and development, and

even those few are grossly underappreciated. Our goal is to demonstrate the

potential inherent in these overlooked traditional cereals. Our hope is thereby to

stimulate actions to increase the support for, and use of, the best of them so as to

increase food supplies, improve nutrition, and raise economic conditions.

It should be understood that most of the plants described are not truly lost;

indeed, a few are well known worldwide. It is to the mainstream of international

science and to people outside the rural regions that they are "lost." It should also

be understood that it is not just for Africa that the grains hold promise. Several of

Africa's now neglected cereals could become major contributors to the welfare of

nations around the world. This potential is often emphasized in the following

chapters in hopes of stimulating the world community into serious and self-

interested support for these species that now languish.

PREFACE xiii

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This study began in 1989 when the staff officers mailed questionnaires to

about 1,000 scientists and organizations worldwide. The questionnaire requested

nominations of little-known African food plants for possible inclusion. It

contained a list of 77 native African grains, roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits,

legumes, oilseeds, nuts, spices, sweeteners, and beverage plants. We anticipated

that perhaps 30 of these species would prove to have outstanding merit and that

the report would focus on those. What actually occurred, however, was very

different.

Within a few weeks of mailing the questionnaire, replies started flooding

back in numbers far greater than anticipated; many recipients photocopied their

questionnaire and sent the copies (as many as 50 in several cases) on to their

colleagues; requests came pouring in from people we had never heard of. The

staff could barely keep up with the hundreds of requests, replies, suggestions,

scientific papers, and unsolicited writings that began to appear in the mail. Within

4 months, over 100 additional species had been nominated as "write-in

candidates." Within a year, at least 100 more were recommended. By then it was

clear that the power of this project was far greater than anyone had foreseen. It

was decided, therefore, to divide it into sections dealing individually with the

different types of foods.

This report on the lost grains of Africa is the first in this series. From the

flood of suggestions and information on the native African cereals was fashioned a

first draft. Each of its chapters was mailed back to the original nominators as well

as to other experts identified by the staff. As a result, hundreds of suggestions for

corrections and additions were received, and each was evaluated and integrated

into what, after editing and review, became the current text.

The report is intended as a tool for economic development rather than a

textbook or survey of African botany or agriculture. It has been written for

dissemination particularly to administrators, entrepreneurs, and researchers in

Africa as well as other parts of the world. Its purpose is to provide a brief

introduction to the plants selected and to stimulate actions that explore and

exploit them. The ultimate aim is to get the most promising native African grains

into greater production so as to raise nutritional levels, diversify agriculture, and

create economic opportunities.

Because the book is written for audiences both lay and professional, each

chapter is organized in increasing levels of detail. The lead paragraphs and

prospects sections are intended primarily for nonspecialists. Subsequent sections

contain background information from which specialists can better assess a plant's

potential for their regions or research programs. These sections also include a

brief overview of "next steps" that could help the plant to reach its full promise.

Finally,

PREFACE xiv

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appendixes at the back of the book provide the following information:

• The addresses of researchers who know the individual plants well;

• Information on potential sources of germplasm; and

• Lists of carefully selected papers that provide more detail than can be

presented here.

Because most of these plants are so little studied, the literature on them is

often old, difficult to find, or available only locally. This is unfortunate, and we

hope that this book will stimulate monographs, newsletters, articles, and papers

on all of the species. One of the most effective actions that plant scientists and

plant lovers can take is to collect, collate, and communicate the Africa-wide

observations and experiences with these crops in such publications. They might

also create seed supplies and distribute seeds of appropriate varieties. All this

could stimulate pan-African cooperation and international endeavors to ensure

that these crops are lost no more.

This book has been produced under the auspices of the Board on Science and

Technology for International Development (BOSTID), National Research

Council. It is a product of a special BOSTID program that is mandated to assess

innovative scientific and technological advances, particularly emphasizing those

appropriate for developing countries. Since its inception in 1970, this small

program has produced 40 reports identifying unconventional scientific subjects of

promise for developing countries. These have covered subjects as diverse as the

water buffalo, butterfly farming, fast-growing trees, and techniques to provide

more water for arid lands (see BOSTID Innovation Program, page 373).

Among these reports, the following provide information that directly

complements the present report:

• More Water for Arid Lands (1974)

• Triticale: A Promising Addition to the World's Cereal Grains (1989)

• Quality-Protein Maize (1988)

• Amaranth: Modern Prospects for an Ancient Crop (1983)

• Applications of Biotechnology to Traditional Fermented Foods (1992)

• Ferrocement: Applications in Developing Countries (1973)

• Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems (1992)

• Vetiver: A Thin Green Line Against Erosion (1993).

Program and staff costs for this study were provided by the U.S. Agency for

International Development. Specifically, these were

PREFACE xv

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provided by the Office of Nutrition and the Office of the Science Advisor (both

of the Bureau for Science and Technology), as well as the Bureau for Africa. The

panel would like to acknowledge the special contribution of Norge W. Jerome,

Director of the Office of Nutrition, 1988-1991, without whose initiative the

project would not have been launched. Other AID personnel who made this work

possible include Calvin Martin, Tim Resch, Dwight Walker, John Daly, Frances

Davidson, and Ray Meyer.

General support for printing, publishing, and distributing the report has been

provided by the Kellogg Endowment Fund of the National Academy of Sciences

and the Institute of Medicine as well as from the Wallace Genetic Foundation.

We especially want to thank Jean W. Douglas, a foundation director, for her trust

and preserverance during this project's long gestation and difficult birth.

The contributions from all these sources are gratefully acknowledged.

How to cite this report:

National Research Council. 1996. Lost Crops of Africa. Volume I: Grains.

National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

PREFACE xvi

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NOTE ON TERMS

Throughout this book the word "Africa" always refers to Africa south of the

Sahara. (The plants of North Africa are, biogenetically, part of the

Mediterranean-Near East complex of plants, and so are mostly not native to the

rest of Africa.) We have preferred to use English common names where possible,

except in a few cases where they imply the plant pertains only to one country (for

example, Egyptian lupin). Finally, because this book will be read and used in

many regions beyond Africa, we have used the internationally accepted name

"cassava" rather than its more common African name, "manioc," and "peanut" for

"groundnut.''

Nutritional values are in most cases presented on a dry weight basis to

eliminate moisture differences between samples.

PREFACE xvii

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Contents

Foreword 1

Introduction 3

1 African Rice 17

2 Finger Millet 39

3 Fonio (Acha) 59

4 Pearl Millet 77

5 Pearl Millet: Subsistence Types 93

6 Pearl Millet: Commercial Types 111

7 Sorghum 127

8 Sorghum: Subsistence Types 145

9 Sorghum: Commercial Types 159

10 Sorghum: Specialty Types 177

11 Sorghum: Fuel and Utility Types 195

12 Tef 215

13 Other Cultivated Grains 237

14 Wild Grains 251

CONTENTS xviii

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Appendixes

A Potential Breakthroughs for Grain Farmers 273

B Potential Breakthroughs in Grain Handling 285

C Potential Breakthroughs in Convenience Foods 297

D Potential Breakthroughs in Child Nutrition 312

E After Words 318

F References and Selected Readings 329

G Research Contacts 342

H Notes on Nutritional Charts 360

I Lost Crops of Africa Series 363

INDEX OF FOODS 367

INDEX OF PLANTS 369

BOSTID Innovation Program 373

Board on Science and Technology for International Development

(BOSTID)

376

BOSTID Publications 377

CONTENTS xix

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CONTENTS xx

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Lost Crops of Africa

volume I Grains

xxi

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xxii

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Foreword

Africa has more native cereals than any other continent. It has its own

species of rice, as well as finger millet, fonio, pearl millet, sorghum, tef, guinea

millet, and several dozen wild cereals whose grains are eaten from time to time.

This is a food heritage that has fed people for generation after generation

stretching back to the origins of mankind. It is also a local legacy of genetic

wealth upon which a sound food future might be built. But, strangely, it has

largely been bypassed in modern times.

Centuries ago, dhows introduced rice from Asia. In the 1500s, Portuguese

colonists imported maize from the Americas. In the last few decades wheat has

arrived, courtesy of farmers in the temperate zones. Faced with these wondrous

foreign foods, the continent has slowly tilted away from its own ancient cereal

wealth and embraced the new-found grains from across the seas.

Lacking the interest and support of the authorities (most of them non-African

colonial authorities, missionaries, and agricultural researchers), the local grains

could not keep pace with the up-to-the-minute foreign cereals, which were made

especially convenient to consumers by the use of mills and processing. The old

grains languished and remained principally as the foods of the poor and the rural

areas. Eventually, they took on a stigma of being second-rate. Myths arose—that

the local grains were not as nutritious, not as high yielding, not as flavorful, nor

as easy to handle. As a result, the native grains were driven into internal exile. In

their place, maize, a grain from across the Atlantic, became the main food from

Senegal to South Africa.

But now, forward-thinking scientists are starting to look at the old cereal

heritage with unbiased eyes. Peering past the myths, they see waiting in the

shadows a storehouse of resources whose qualities offer promise not just to

Africa, but to the world.

Already, sorghum is a booming new food crop in Central America. Pearl

millet is showing such utility that it is probably the most promising new crop for

the United States. Nutritionists in a dozen or more

FOREWORD 1

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countries see finger millet and some sorghums as the key—finally—to solving

Africa's malnutrition problem. Food technologists are finding vast new

possibilities in processes that can open up vibrant consumer markets for new and

tasty products made from Africa's own grains. And engineers are showing how

the old grains can be produced and processed locally without the spirit-crushing

drudgery that raises the resentment of millions who have to grind grain every

day.

That, then, is the underlying message of this book. It should not be seen as

an indictment of wheat, maize, or rice. Those are the world's three biggest crops,

they have become vital to Africa, and they deserve even more research and

support than they are now getting. But this book, we hope, will open everyone's

eyes to the long-lost promise inherent in the grains that are the gifts of ancient

generations. Dedicated effort will open a second front in the war on hunger,

malnutrition, poverty, and environmental degradation. It will save from extinction

the foods of the forebears. And it just might bring Africa the food-secure future

that everyone hopes for but few can now foresee.

NOEL D. VIETMEYER

STUDY DIRECTOR

FOREWORD 2

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Introduction

Africa's savannas are probably the oldest grasslands on earth and have

changed little during the last 14 million years. Humans have lived there longer

than anywhere else, perhaps more than 100,000 years. Grass seeds have sustained

them throughout.

Indeed, gathering Africa's wild-cereal grains is probably the oldest tradition

in organized food production to be found anywhere in the world. And the

operation was not small. In fact, seeds of about 60 species of wild grasses are still

gathered for food in Africa.

In earlier eras, many were ranked as staples. At least

10 of the wild grasses were domesticated and eventually produced by farmers in

their fields.

In modern times, however, this wealth of native grains has been neglected

and sometimes even scorned. For this reason, we have called them Africa's "lost"

grains.

Despite the neglect, these native grains are not unworthy. For the past, for

the places they were grown and for the level of support they received, they may

have been appropriately judged less useful than wheat, rice, or maize. But for the

time that is fast coming upon us, Africa's sorghum, millets, native rice, and other

indigenous cereals seem likely to become crucial for helping to keep the world

fed.

INTERNATIONAL PROMISE

The present century has seen near miraculous advances in the productivity

of wheat, rice, and maize. Those top three cereals have buffered much of

humanity from the disasters of overpopulation. However, the next century—when

human population is expected to double—cannot be built on the expectation of

redoubling the production of those three. After the year 2000, it could well be

advances in today's "second

Jardin, 1967.

INTRODUCTION 3

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INTRODUCTION 4

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INTRODUCTION 5

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tier" cereals that are the buffers against famine. It is they that have the

greatest amount of untapped potential. Among them, Africa's native grains

predominate. Sorghum and pearl millet, for instance, are the fifth and sixth most

important cereals in the world, and finger millet is probably the eighth.

Generally, they are crops of the poorest countries, which means that their

improvement could directly benefit the people in greatest need.

By comparison with modern wheat, rice, and maize—respectively from the

Middle East, Asia, and Central America—the grains of Africa still retain much of

the hardy, tolerant self-reliance of their wild savanna ancestors. For the future,

such resilient crops will be vital for extending cereal production onto the ever-

more-marginal lands that will have to be pressed into service to feed the several

billion new arrivals. And if global warming occurs, they could even become vital

for keeping today's best arable lands in production.

Forged in the searing savannas and the Sahara, sorghum and pearl millet in

particular have the merits to become crops for the shifting and uncertain

conditions of an overpopulated "greenhouse age."

LOCAL PROMISE

In the last few centuries in Africa, the local grains have been superseded by

foreign cereals introduced and promoted by outsiders such as missionaries,

colonial powers, or researchers. In recent decades, the production of native grains

has plunged even further as millions of tons of imports—particularly wheat and

rice—have been sold at subsidized prices.

Despite its long history, Africa's cereal production is now low. The Green

Revolution that transformed the tropics and subtropics, from the Indian

subcontinent to South America, passed Africa by. In fact, per-capita production

of cereals has decreased nearly 20 percent (present annual output being only

about 50 million tons or a mere 11

Barley, native to the Middle East, is the fourth and rye is the seventh.

In rural Africa, the traditional cereals, such as sorghum and millets, are normally boiled

into porridges (thick) or gruels (thin). Scenes like that shown have led outsiders to

conclude that the crop itself is primitive. But wheat, rice, and maize were also treated this

way throughout most of their 5,000-year history as crops. Only in recent times have they

been commercially processed and packaged and sold in convenient forms. Given the same

treatment, grains like sorghum being cooked here can also enter modern production.

(ICRISAT)

INTRODUCTION 6

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kg per person). It has been estimated that Africa now needs 14 million tons more

grain each year than it is producing. With the population growing at 3 percent per

year and agricultural production increasing by only 2 percent, that shortfall will

reach 50 million tons by 2000.

Obviously a crisis is impending in Africa's food supply. Improving cereals

for Africa should be a great international agricultural endeavor. Maize, rice, and

wheat have much to offer and deserve greatly increased support. A crucial

objective, though, must be to extend cereal production into areas where

environmental stresses and plant diseases currently limit their growth. For these

now-marginal lands, Africa's own grains offer outstanding promise. They are

tools for helping build a new and stronger food-production framework—one of

inestimable value for the hungriest and most destitute nations.

THE SPECIES

This promise (and much more) is described in the body of this book. There,

the following species are covered in detail.

African Rice

Most people think of rice as an exclusively Asian crop, but farmers have

grown a native rice (Oryza glaberrima) in parts of West Africa for at least 1,500

years. This crop comes in a wealth of different types that are planted, managed,

prepared, and eaten in different ways. Some mature extremely quickly and will

fit into seasons and situations where other cereals fail. The grain is much like

common rice, although the husk around it is usually red. This plant not only has

promise in its own right, its genes might also eventually benefit the production of

common rice worldwide. (See chapter 1, page 17.)

Spore, June 1995.

Pearl millet in Mali, as seen in the vicinity of Mopti. Crops such as this are a mainstay

of life in the vast rural regions of Africa. Despite their vital importance to millions like this

village farmer, traditional cereals receive only minuscule support from science and the

world community. They are the "forgotten end" of agricultural development. Yet, as can

be seen here, they are a part of the heritage and daily living of hard-working Africans.

Outsiders may scorn pearl millet, but this woman's face shows the pride she feels in her

harvest. (H.S. Duggal, courtesy ICRISAT)

INTRODUCTION 7

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INTRODUCTION 8

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INTRODUCTION 9

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Finger Millet

In parts of East and Central Africa (not to mention India), millions of people

have lived off finger millet (Eleusine coracana) for centuries. One of the most

nutritious of the major cereals, it is rich in methionine, an amino acid critically

lacking in the diets of hundreds of millions of the world's poor. The plant yields

satisfactorily on marginal lands, and its tasty grain is remarkable for its long

storage life. The fact that certain Africans thrive on just one meal a day is

attributed to the nutritive value and ''filling" nature of this grain. (See chapter 2,

page 39.)

Fonio (Acha)

An indigenous West African crop, fonio (comprising two species, Digitaria

exilis and Digitaria iburua) is grown mainly on small farms for home

consumption. It is probably the world's fastest maturing cereal and is particularly

important as a safety net for producing when other foods are in short supply or

market prices are too high for poor people to afford. But fonio is much more than

just a fallback food; it is also a gourmet grain. People enjoy it as a porridge, in

soups, or as couscous with fish or meat. The plant grows well on poor, sandy

soils. It, too, is rich in the amino acid methionine. It also has a high level of

cystine, a feature that is an even rarer find in a cereal. With its appealing taste and

high nutritional value, this could become a widespread gourmet grain for savanna

regions, perhaps throughout much of Africa or even much of the world. It might

well have a big future as a cash crop and export commodity. (See chapter 3, page

59.)

Pearl Millet

Some 4,000 years ago, pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was domesticated

from a wild grass of the southern Sahara. Today, it is the world's sixth-largest

cereal crop, but it has even greater potential than most people imagine. Of the

major cereals, pearl millet is the most tolerant of heat and drought; it has the

power to yield reliably in regions too arid and too hot to consistently support

good yields of other major grains. These happen to be the regions that will most

desperately need help in the decades ahead.

Already, water is shaping up as the most limiting resource for numerous

economies—even some of the most advanced. Agriculture is usually a country's

biggest user of water. Thus, for nations that have never heard of it or that perhaps

regard it with scorn, pearl millet might quickly rise to become a vital resource.

(See chapters 4-6; pages 17, 93, and 111.)

INTRODUCTION 10

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Sorghum

Globally speaking, sorghum is the dietary staple of more than 500 million

people in more than 30 countries. Only rice, wheat, maize, and potatoes surpass it

in the quantity eaten. For all that, however, it produces merely a fraction of what

it could. Indeed, if the twentieth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and

maize, the twenty-first could become the century of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor).

First, sorghum is among the most photosynthetically efficient and quickest

maturing food plants. Second, it thrives on many marginal sites where other

cereals fail. Third, sorghum is perhaps the world's most versatile food crop. Some

types of its grains are boiled like rice, cracked like oats for porridge, "malted" like

barley for beer, baked like wheat into flat breads, or popped like popcorn for

snacks.

The plant has many uses beyond food as well. Perhaps the most intriguing is

its use for fuel. The stems of certain types yield large amounts of sugar, almost

like sugarcane. Thus, sorghum is a potential source of alcohol fuels for powering

vehicles or cooking evening meals. Because of the plant's adaptability, it may

eventually prove a better source of alcohol fuel than sugarcane or maize, which

are the only ones now being used.

Finally, sorghum is a relatively undeveloped crop with a truly remarkable

array of grain types, plant types, and adaptability. Most of its genetic wealth is so

far untapped and even unsorted. Indeed, sorghum probably has more undeveloped

genetic potential than any other major food crop in the world. (See chapters 7-11;

pages 127, 145, 159, 177, and 195.)

Tef

This staple cereal (Eragrostis tef) is the most esteemed grain in Ethiopia. It

is ground into flour and made into pancake-like fermented bread, injera, that

forms the basic diet of millions. Many Ethiopians eat it several times a day (when

there is enough), particularly with spicy sauces, vegetables, and stews.

Tef is nutritious; the grain is about 13 percent protein, well balanced in

amino acids, and rich in iron. In many ways, it seems to have ideal qualities for a

grain, yet research has been scanty and intermittent, and so far the crop is all but

unknown beyond Ethiopia. In the last few years, however, commercial production

has started in the United States and South Africa, and an export trade in tef grain

has begun. These seem likely harbingers of a new, worldwide recognition of this

crop. (See chapter 12, page 215.)

INTRODUCTION 11

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MISUNDERSTANDINGS

It is fair to ask why Africa's grains are not better known. At least in part,

the reason can be attributed to several unjustified perceptions. Some of

these misperceptions that are clouding the world's vision of Africa's native

grains are discussed below.

Inferiority of Displaced Crops. Introduced crops have displaced several

African ones over the past few centuries. For example, in several areas

maize has replaced sorghum; in West Africa, Asian rice has replaced

African rice. As a result, there is a strong inclination to consider the

introduced crop superior and the native crop obsolete and unworthy of

further development.

This is illogical, ill-conceived, and even dangerous. All the world's

agriculture is dynamic and every crop gets displaced at certain times and

certain places. In much of the eastern United States, for instance, wheat

was long ago displaced by soybeans; in the Southeast, peanuts replaced

rice; and in the Great Plains, wheat has supplanted maize. But no one in

America considers wheat, maize, or rice to be inferior, obsolete, or

unworthy.

Misclassification. Africa's cereals are inadvertently discriminated

against through the way they are described. People everywhere classify

sorghums and millets in a different light from wheat, rice, and maize. All the

categories have pejorative connotations. For instance, these grains are

typically referred to as:

• "Coarse" grains (that is, not refined; fit for animal feed);

• "Minor" crops (not worthy of major status);

• "Millets" (seeds too small);

• ''Famine" foods (good for eating only when starving); and

• "Feed" grains (suitable for animals only).

Poor People's Plants. Many crops are scorned as fit only for

consumption by the poor. It happens everywhere. Peanuts, potatoes, and

other common crops once suffered from this same discrimination. In the

United States the peanut was considered to be "merely slave food" until

little more than a century ago, and in the 1600s the English refused to eat

potatoes because they considered them to be "Irish food." Cultural bias

against peasant crops is a tragedy; the plants poor people grow are usually

robust,

INTRODUCTION 12

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productive, self-reliant, and useful—the very types needed to feed the

hungriest mouths on the planet.

Inferior Yield. Low yield is perhaps the most frequent comment made

about Africa's grains. Yet these grains are now mostly cultivated in

marginal lands under less than optimal management and the yields

therefore do not reflect their true potential.

Moreover, the use of yield figures can be totally misleading. Maize may

be able to outyield finger millet, pearl millet, hungry rice, and tef, but only

when soil fertility, moisture, and other conditions are good. Under poor

conditions, African grains often outyield the best products of modern

science.

Unworthy Foods. Millets are mainly used for making porridges,

fermented products, couscous, and other foods that are alien and therefore

somewhat suspect to non-Africans, especially Westerners. This has led

outsiders, who often serve as "decision makers," to direct resources away

from native grains.

Disparaging comments about African foods are not uncommon in the

writings of travelers—especially in Victorian times. They are of course only

personal—often highly prejudiced—opinions but, lingering in the literature,

they have a pernicious influence that can last for decades or even

centuries. Europeans treated the potato and tomato this way when they

first arrived from the Americas. Myths about taste and safety helped block

the adoption of both for two centuries.

Cost-Effectiveness. Most of Africa's grains are exclusively subsistence

crops; the remainder are partially so. Farmers grow them for their own use

rather than for market, and therefore there are no statistics on production or

costs. A plant may be helping feed millions, but in the international figures

on area sown, tonnage produced and exported, and prices paid it never

shows. It is as if it doesn't exist.

This situation might be of little consequence were it not for the fact that

economic-development funding these days is overwhelmingly judged on

"cost-effectiveness." Thus, a crop with no baseline data is at a cruel

disadvantage. Maize or wheat researchers can pull out impressive figures to

justify the promise of their proposed studies. Finger millet or fonio

researchers can only come up with guesses. To the hard-pressed, cost-

conscious administrator—ever fearful of accusations that public funds may

be misspent—the decision on which proposal to support is inevitably

biased.

INTRODUCTION 13

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Other Cultivated Grains

Some of the cereals described previously are not, strictly speaking, "lost."

But there are a number of African food grains that are indeed truly overlooked by

modern science. (See chapter 13, page 237.)

Guinea Millet

Perhaps the world's least-known domesticated cereal, guinea millet

(Brachiaria deflexa), is cultivated by farmers only in the Fouta Djallon Plateau, a

remote region of Guinea. At present, almost nothing can be said about its

potential, but it clearly deserves exploratory research and support.

Emmer

This rare wheat (Triticum dicoccum) originated in the Near East, but it has a

very ancient African heritage. It reached Ethiopia probably 5,000 years ago or

more and, although it virtually disappeared elsewhere in the world, it comprises

almost 7 percent of Ethiopia's entire wheat production. Moreover, far from

abandoning it, Ethiopian farmers over the last 40 years have actually increased

the percentage of emmer that they grow.

The plant is adapted to a wide range of environments and should be

producible in many parts of the world. The fact that it is little changed from

wheat eaten in the times of the Bible and the Koran could give it special

consumer appeal. But it can stand on its own culinary merits. It is one of the

sweetest and best-tasting cereals.

Irregular Barley

Although barley is also not native to Africa, it, too, has been used in

Ethiopia for thousands of years. Indeed, Ethiopian barley has been isolated so

long that it has been given its own botanical name, Hordeum irregulare, and has

developed its own genetic "personality." This ancient barley is grown mainly in

Ethiopia, where it ranks fourth among crops, both in production and area.

Throughout most of the upper highlands it accounts for over 60 percent of the

people's total plant food. Ethiopia is perhaps unmatched with respect to barley

diversity. Indeed, some scientists think it is a source of new germplasm that could

possibly boost barley growing in Africa and around the world.

Ethiopian Oats

In Ethiopia is found a native oats, Avena abyssinica. This species was

domesticated in the distant past and is a largely nonshattering plant that retains its

grain so people can harvest it. It has long been used in Ethiopia and is well

adapted to the high elevations there. It is, however, unknown elsewhere.

INTRODUCTION 14

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Wild Grains

As noted, people in Africa have been eating wild grains for perhaps 100,000

years. In modern times, however, various writers have discounted these grains as

mere "scarcity foods." This is obviously wrong: wild grains were eagerly eaten

even when pearl millet, for one, was abundant.

Many modern writers also imply that the wild cereals were gathered only on a

small and localized scale. This, too, is apparently false. The harvest in the

Sahara, for example, was large-scale, sophisticated, commercial, and much of it

was export-oriented. The wild grains were a delicacy that even the wealthy

considered a luxury. Examples of such untamed cereals are drinn, golden millet,

kram-kram, panic grasses, wild rices, jungle rice, wild tefs, and crowfoot grasses.

Resurrecting the grain-gathering industry of the past might be a way to help

combat desertification, erosion, and other forms of land degradation across the

worst afflicted areas of the Sahel and its neighboring regions. A vast and

vigorous grain-gathering enterprise might perhaps provide enough economic

incentive to ensure that the grass cover is kept in place and that overgrazing is

controlled. That would bring environmental stability to the world's most alarming

case of desertification. (See chapter 14, page 251.)

CONCLUSION

These "lost" plants have much to offer, and not just to Africa. Indeed, they

represent an exceptional cluster of cereal biodiversity with particular promise for

solving some of the greatest food-production problems that will arise in the

twenty-first century.

This potential for utility in the future is because Africa's native grains tend to

tolerate extremes. They can thrive where introduced grains produce

inconsistently. Some (tef, for instance) are adapted to cold; others (pearl millet,

for example) to heat; at least one sorghum to waterlogging; and many to drought.

Moreover, most can grow better than other cereals on relatively infertile soils.

For thousands of years they have yielded grain even where land preparation was

minimal and management poor. They combine well with other crops in mixed

stands. Some types mature rapidly. They tend to be nutritious. And at least one is

reputed to be better tasting than most of the world's well-known grains.

INTRODUCTION 15

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INTRODUCTION 16

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African Rice

To most of the world, rice connotes Asia and the vast agriculture of Far

Eastern river deltas. Indeed, humanity's second major crop is from Asia, and 90

percent of it—the main source of calories for 2.7 billion people—is grown there.

But rice is also African. A different species has been cultivated in West

Africa for at least 1,500 years. Some West African countries have, since ancient

times, been just as rice-oriented as any Asian one. For all that, however, almost

no one else has ever heard of their species.

Asia's rice is so advanced, so productive, and so well known that its rustic

relative has been relegated to obscurity even in Africa itself. Today, most of the

rice cultivated in Africa is of the Asian species. In fact, the "great red rice of the

hook of the Niger" is declining so rapidly in importance and area that in most

locations it lingers only as a weed in fields of its foreign relative. Soon it may be

gone.

This should not be allowed to happen. The rice of Africa (Oryza

glaberrima ) has a long and noteworthy history. It was selected and established in

West Africa centuries before any organized expeditions could have introduced its

Asian cousin (Oryza sativa). It probably arose in the flood basin of the central

Niger and prehistoric Africans carried it westward to Senegal, southward to the

Guinea coast, and eastward as far as Lake Chad. In these new homes, diligent

people developed it further.

Like their counterparts in the Far East, Africa's ancient rice farmers selected a

remarkable range of cultivars suited to many types of habitats. They produced

"floating" varieties (for growing in deep

There are rice relatives in other parts of the world, too. The genus Oryza is among the

most ancient grasses and was able to spread to every continent before they drifted too far

apart. The result is that different Oryza species are strung out over the tropical regions of

the globe, including South America and Australia. Only one species in Asia and one in

Africa were domesticated, however.

AFRICAN RICE 17

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water), weakly and strongly photoperiod-sensitive types (for growing in

different latitudes and seasons), swamp and upland cultivars (for growing under

irrigated and rainfed conditions, respectively), and early and late-maturing types.

And, for all of these, they selected forms with various seed characteristics.

Although modern efforts to expand rice production in Africa have largely

ignored this indigenous heritage, African rice is still cultivated in West Africa—

especially in remote districts. There, until recently, much of it was reserved as a

special luxury food for chiefs and religious rituals. Today, however, farms that

grow substantial stands of African rice are few. The area of most intense

cultivation is the "floating fields" on the Sokoto fadamas (floodplains) of Nigeria

and the Niger River's inland delta in Mali. However, the crop is also widely, if

thinly, spread in Sierra Leone (see box, page 28) and neighboring areas, as well

as in the hills that straddle the Ghana-Togo border.

From one point of view, there seem to be good reasons for abandoning this

food of the forebears. In most locations farmers prefer the foreign rice because it

yields better and scatters less of its seed on the ground. Millers prefer it because

its grain is less brittle and therefore easier to mill. Shippers prefer it as well. For

them, African rice is hardly worth a minute's consideration because it is not a

trade commodity and most types are red-skinned and therefore unsuitable for

mixing with conventional rice in bulk handling.

But these are concerns almost entirely of commercial farming. The situation

is quite different where rice is grown strictly for localized, subsistence, or

specialty use. There, yield, brittleness, color, or international interest can be

unimportant. Indeed, small-scale farmers often prefer African rice. They like the

grain's taste and aroma, and even its reddish appearance. They find the plant easy

to produce: its rambunctious growth and spreading canopy help suppress weeds

and it generally resists local diseases and pests by itself. Also, to some people

traditional rituals are meaningless unless the ancient grain is employed.

Moreover, these are not the only advantages. Compared to its Asian cousin,

African rice is better at tolerating fluctuating water depths, excessive iron, low

levels of management, infertile soils, harsh climates, and late planting (a valued

feature because in West Africa's erratic

For hundreds, if not thousands, of years, "floating" versions of African rice have been

cultivated beside the Niger River, especially here between Timbuktu and Gao. Farmers

along this 600-km stretch count on the Niger to overflow its banks and flood the lowlands

where they've sowed their seeds. The rice plants can survive in rising floodwater up to

several meters deep. When drought reduced the Niger's flow in the 1970s, the full crop

could not be planted and a million lives were put at risk. (J. Gallais. courtesy Flammarion

et cie, Paris)

AFRICAN RICE 21

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climate the rains are often tardy). Also, there are some types that mature much

more quickly than common rice. Planted out in emergencies when food stocks are

getting low, these can save lives.

PROSPECTS

What actually happens in the future to this interesting African crop will

depend on individual initiatives, most of them within Africa itself. Part of the

problem is its lack of prestige. Everywhere, consumers have fallen in love with

processed Asian rice. If someone now makes a processed (that is, parboiled)

product out of African rice, that alone may return it to high favor. Indeed, it may

rise to become a gourmet food of particular interest because of its ancient and

historic heritage.

Part of the problem, also, is lack of supply. Thus, if such specialty markets

develop, it seems likely that African rice will survive as a commercial crop.

Then, with selection and breeding, its various cultivars can almost certainly be

made to compete with Asian rice in most African locations. There is evidence,

for example, that certain types already match the productivity of Asian rice, and

in the yield figures there is considerable overlap between the best African and the

poorer Asian ones. This is remarkable considering the 5,000 years of intense

effort that has been invested in improving Asian rice.

Even if the local rice never thrives as a commercial crop, it will likely

continue as a subsistence crop in West Africa. However, whether this is a

lingering decline for a few more decades or a robust return to massive use

depends on the responses of scientists, administrators, and others. Even in its

current neglected form the plant has something to offer, but just a small amount

of support, promotion, and practical research seems likely to bring dramatic

improvements.

The problems of shattering and brittle grain can undoubtedly be overcome

by careful scrutiny of the types already spread across West Africa. A small cash

prize might well produce appropriate genotypes almost overnight. The same

could happen for white-skin types, which many people would find more

appealing than the main type of today. Even now, not all the varieties are red-

skinned. In Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia, for example, white types are said to

be already available.

Africa

Although no one can be certain of what will happen with this crop in the

coming decades, the prospects for doubling its production and overcoming its

various technical limitations are good. Technical

AFRICAN RICE 22

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Rice was cultivated in Africa long before any navigator from Java or Arabia

could have introduced their kind of rice to Madagascar or the East African

coast. The native rice was grown first in the central Niger delta, and later in the

Gambia, Casamance, and Sokoto basins. African rice is now utilized particularly

in the central Niger floodplain, the coastal zone between Senegal and Sierra

Leone, and the mountainous areas of Guinea and the Ghana/Togo border.

The primary center (small map) shows the distribution of the wild form. The

secondary centers are where notable arrays of cultivated types occur. The main

rice belt is the zone where African rice is cultivated the most.

AFRICAN RICE 23

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improvements, such as those just mentioned, could give it a solid future. It is

now known only in West Africa, but eventually it might also find a place

elsewhere. Although only a few African countries grow even Asian rice in a

major way, it is the continent's fourth biggest cereal (after maize, pearl millet, and

sorghum) in terms of area planted. And demand is ever rising as population,

standards of living, urbanization, international travel (with its exposure to new

cuisines), and the search for easy-to-prepare foods increase. At present, West

Africa absorbs a quarter of the world's rice exports.

Humid Areas

On the face of it, African rice is at its biggest disadvantage in the humid

lowlands. This is prime country for growing Asian paddy rice, whose current

competitive edge makes it clearly the crop of choice. In addition, in this zone

farmers and governments often invest in irrigation facilities, and to recoup their

vast expenditures they must grow the highest yielding, highest selling crop. As a

result, it is in this zone that African rice has suffered its most precipitous decline.

On the other hand, even here there seems to be a small but vital place for

African rice. A recent survey in southern Sierra Leone, for example, found that

even where Asian rice predominates farmers still retain one or two ultra-quick

traditional types as ''hunger-breakers." And, faced with a worsening hungry

season caused by economic recession or other factors, many farmers say they

would revert to the short-duration African-rice varieties, if only they could find

sources of seed.

Dry Areas

For the truly arid zones African rice is not a suitable crop, but on moderately

watered sites (for example, where annual rainfall is at least 760 mm) or

seasonally flooded sites its prospects seem good. The fact that some varieties

mature 10-20 days before their principal Asian-rice rivals is significant in

drylands where precipitation is often erratic. In northern Sierra Leone, for

example, the rainy season in recent decades has been terminating early and with

unusual abruptness. For this reason alone, farmers are cultivating African rice on

at least some portion of their land.

With it, they are assured of a harvest.

Upland Areas

In West Africa's highlands

where this type of rice is still an important grain

producer, it will continue to be important as

Information from P. Richards. For additional details, see box, page 28. Two Sierra

Leone varieties, pende and mala, ripen within 90-110 days: pende is a strongly tillering

variety valued also for its ability to smother weeds.

Information from P. Richards.

By most standards, these lands are not very high—only about 1,000 m above sea

level.

AFRICAN RICE 24

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a subsistence crop. The upland varieties are notably useful in shifting agriculture.

They also have a place in crop rotations because their root systems and

susceptibility to soilborne diseases differ from those of the major crops. Planting

them for a season or so tends to "sanitize" the site.

Other Regions

For lands beyond Africa, prospects are slight. There, African rice offers few

benefits over the Asian species and may not adapt well.

Although it might have a

future as a small specialty crop, more likely it will become an accursed weed,

especially in rice fields.

USES

African rice can be used for all the same purposes as Asian rice. It is thus

extremely versatile. There are, however, some specialized local uses. West

Africa's Mandingo and Susu people, for instance, use rice flour and honey to

make a sweet-tasting bread, so special that it is the centerpiece of ceremonial

rituals. Rice beer is popular throughout West Africa, and in Nigeria a special beer

(called betso or buza) is made from rice and honey. Also, in Ivory Coast there is a

project to use African rice as a component of baby foods.

NUTRITION

Both rices are principally carbohydrate sources. However, in practice

African rice's nutritional quality is greater than that of Asian rice.

This seems to

be not because of any inherent difference but because it is more difficult to

polish. Asian rice is invariably polished to a greater degree, and therefore more of

its nutrients (especially the important vitamin, thiamine) are lost.

AGRONOMY

As with Asian rice, African rice is grown in three major ways: dryland (or

upland), paddy, and "floating."

For instance, one reason why African rice is not better known internationally is that it

grows poorly in the Philippines, where the world's major rice-research facility is located.

This is not a measure of inferiority—just a lack of adaptation to the local conditions,

especially to viral diseases.

Information from the Food and Nutrition Board, Food Research Institute, Ghana.

AFRICAN RICE 25

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Dryland

About 40 percent of the rice production in Africa's 15 major rice-producing

countries relies on rain as the only source of water. Almost all of that area

employs the Asian species, but West Africa still grows a small but significant

amount of dryland African rice. Indeed, in certain parts of Ghana and Togo it is

the chief staple.

The dryland form thrives in light soils wherever there is a rainy season of at

least 4 months and minimum rainfall of 760 mm. It is often interplanted with

millets, maize, sorghum, beniseed, roselle, cowpea, cassava, or cotton. Today's

varieties mature in 90-170 days. Yields average 450-900 kg per hectare, but can

go as high as 1,680 kg per hectare.

Paddy

Only about one-sixth of Africa's rice is produced using irrigation and 60

percent of that is in just one country—Madagascar. Swamp rice, however, is

being increasingly cultivated in former mangrove areas of the Gambia, Guinea-

Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Essentially all of it at present is the Asian

species.

African rice can also be grown in the same way. It can be seeded into damp

soil or transplanted to fields under water. These types mature in 140-220 days.

The yield ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 kg per hectare.

Floating

In the River Niger's inland delta in Mali, farmers grow various forms of

floating African rice. These plants lengthen prodigiously to keep their heads at

the surface of the floodwaters, where they flower and set seed. One type (songhai

tomo) can grow in water more than 3 m deep.

Floating varieties can utilize deeply inundated basins where nothing else can

be raised. They are often harvested from canoes. They ripen in 180-250 days.

Yields range from 1,000 to 3,000 kg per hectare, depending on the amount of

rainfall early in the growing season and on the eventual depth of the subsequent

floods.

HARVESTING AND HANDLING

African rice is handled like its more famous Asian cousin, but (as noted) its

grains tend to split, and so greater care must be taken. Also, it is more difficult to

hull.

As is to be expected with such a neglected crop, yields are variable and

uncertain. However, there are hints that they are not as low as

In the region of Timbuktu a very promising, nonfloating, dwarf type called riz kobé is

grown on runoff water in the rainy season. (Information from W. Schreurs.)

AFRICAN RICE 26

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Moisture (g) 5 Cystine 2.6

Food energy (Kc) 358 Isoleucine 4.7

Protein (g) 7.6 Leucine 8.8

Carbohydrate (g) 81 Lysine 4.1

Fat (g) 1.9 Methionine 3.1

Fiber (g) 0.5 Phenylalanine 5.1

Ash (g) 3.8 Threonine 3.7

Thiamin (mg) 0.39 Tyrosine 4.6

Niacin (mg) 5.0 Valine 6.4

Calcium (mg) 25

Iron (mg) 2.0

Phosphorus (mg)

263

COMPARATIVE QUALITY

A glance at this chart shows that whole-grain African rice is at least as rich as

white (i.e., Asian) rice in most nutrients. In some vitamins and minerals it is far

superior.

AFRICAN RICE 27

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commonly claimed. For example, five years of experiments at two sites in

Ivory Coast found that 16 populations of African rice (selected for their

productivity) compared favorably with three top varieties of Asian rice. Despite

their natural lodging and spontaneous shattering, the best African rice varieties

(BG 141 and BG 187) gave average and remarkably stable yields of 1,500-1,800

kg per hectare (depending on the site) as did their Asian counterpart

(Moroberekan), the traditional upland variety promoted in Ivory Coast.

RICE IN SIERRA LEONE

Recently, researchers surveyed the distribution and use of rice in Sierra

Leone. Following is their account of their findings. It is probably indicative of

the situation throughout much of West Africa.

In visits to just over 500 farmers in all parts of Sierra Leone, we found

that 245 types ("varieties") of rice were in use. Of these, 24 were African

rice.

Although it generally yields less than Asian rice, African rice survives

—and may even be making a modest comeback in some areas, especially

in the drier northwest. There are a number of reasons for this. Compared

with Asian rice, African rice:

• Seems to manage better on extremely impoverished soils.

• Competes better with weeds. Indeed, farmers pressed by labor

shortages leave the crop to fend for itself. African rice will yield

something even where Asian rice is choked out of existence by weeds.

This is important because for small-scale rice farmers labor shortage is

the most pressing constraint.

• Matures quicker. Nearly all the samples we collected matured in 100-125

days and are therefore among the quickest ripening rice cultivars in the

country. (The average for dryland Asian rice in our sample was 130-140

days, and for wetland, 160-170 days.)

• Is preferred by many of the people. Several informants believed that

African rice is nutritionally superior. They say that it is "heavy in the

stomach" and keeps hunger at bay far longer

Clement and Goli, 1987. In most cases, African-rice varieties from Guinea-Bissau

proved higher yielding than those of other origin.

AFRICAN RICE 28

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than the average Asian rice. Also, they often told us that it tastes

"sweeter." And they said it keeps well after cooking. This is particularly

important because many people prepare food only once a day, but

members of the family drop by to eat at any time.

In northwestern Sierra Leone, however, Asian rice is preferred. People

in this area complained that African rice is difficult to husk and that cleaning

off its tough red bran takes a lot of work. Women in particular complained

of the extra workload it imposes.

On the other hand, in other parts of the country redness was an

important advantage. For example, Mende people in the south and east

look on the red tinge (found on incompletely milled grains) as a guarantee

that the sample is not a foreign rice. Rice soaked in palm oil plays a major

part in their rituals, and it is unthinkable for them to use an Asian wetland

variety.

In their fields, Sierra Leone farmers draw no distinction between Asian

and African rices. Both species go by the same name: mba (Mende) or pa

(Temne). The fields are very mixed from a genetic point of view. The

farmers prefer it that way and, seemingly, they deliberately foster diversity

because most of them know how to rogue out undesirable types and would

do so if they wanted to.

We noticed that the African and Asian species appear to have

hybridized in many places. A number of the most popular Temne rices, for

example, are in fact intermediate types (judged by ligule form, grain shape,

and panicle type). Certain named landraces seemed to be neither Asian

nor African rice and may be assigned to either or both species.

Paul Richards, Serrie Kamara,

Osman Bah, Joseph Amara, Malcolm Jusu

LIMITATIONS

In its present state, African rice certainly has limitations, including those

listed below:

• Lodging. The plants tend to have weak stalks, and late-season windstorms

can sometimes topple them.

• Shattering. Today's plants tend to drop the seed as it matures.

• Splitting. The seed tends to break in half if handled roughly.

• Color. Although the grain itself is always white, most types have red

husks.

• Processing. To remove the husk is laborious.

AFRICAN RICE 29

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• Weediness. In West Africa, extensive genetic interaction occurs between

African rice's wild and cultivated races. The mixed populations that build

up can be extremely complex. The weedy results infest the rice fields and

can be serious pests.

• Diseases. Compared to Asian rice, it can be more susceptible to numerous

fungi as well as to the parasitic plant striga and to a brown spot of

unknown cause.

Although these limitations collectively add up to a fearsome combination,

they mainly reflect the neglect this crop suffers from. All are now circumvented

by people who grow and use African rice; research can undoubtedly reduce their

severity if not overcome them entirely. Moreover, several of these limitations are

also characteristic of competing grains.

NEXT STEPS

African rice must be kept from dying out as a crop. It deserves research,

development, greater promotion, and support. At the very least it has genes of

potential value to its near relation, the world's second biggest food crop. Actions

to be taken include the following:

Friends of African Rice

A good start could be made by an organization of volunteers—both

professionals and amateurs—who join together in a cooperative spirit to explore,

protect, promote, and provide samples of this millennia-old resource. They might

also collect the legends that come with the various types before they, too, die.

Information Exchange

Researchers are now working on rice in Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Ivory Coast,

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and other countries. An

international center, the West African Rice Development Association, specializes

in the crop. And two French institutes, Office de la Recherche Scientifique et

Technique Outre-Mer (ORSTOM) and Institut de Recherches Agronomiques

Tropicales et des Cultures Vivrières-Centre de Coopération Internationale en

Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (IRAT-CIRAD), also have rice

programs in Africa. All but one of these organizations work almost exclusively on

Asian rice, but the presence of their expertise means that there are good

opportunities to advance the development of its African relative.

One way to

stimulate

Such a gene flow between wild and cultivated species is also of long-term benefit to

the crop. It maintains a broad genetic base and enhances its ability to resist drought, pests,

diseases, and other hazards. But to a farmer faced with the need for high yields of uniform

grain, it can be a curse.

Research contacts for these and other programs are listed in Appendix G.

AFRICAN RICE 30

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interest within the international scientific community is to collect all available

research data and publish a detailed monograph on African rice.

Food Processing

As noted earlier, the availability of precooked products made from African

rice might do much to halt its decline and, indeed, to turn it around. Innovation,

ingenuity, and marketing skill could be employed to return this food to

prominence. It might well start out as a specialty product, selling at a premium to

hotels for tourists and to those people dedicated to African traditions.

Seed Supply

In many areas the amount of seed in circulation is so low as to render the

species nonviable. It is important to keep up a supply of seed. Then, at least, the

farmers who want to keep growing African rice won't be excluded as is now

apparently happening in Sierra Leone.

Germplasm

Samples of African rice have been gathered by various organizations,

notably the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), ORSTOM,

and IRAT-CIRAD. This has been stored for purposes of conservation and

possible plant breeding.

For all that, however, many interesting types undoubtedly remain to be

collected across the vastness of West Africa.

Agronomic Studies

Since little hard data on this crop exists, it would be useful for students of

agronomy to take up the many challenges of "filling in the map." Examples

include the following:

• Selecting nonshattering genotypes or developing techniques to overcome

shattering.

• Testing strains for salt tolerance.

• Locating types for drought avoidance.

• Measuring cell sap osmotic adjustment.

• Testing the plant's storage capacity and dormancy requirements.

• Reducing broken grains. Certain strains of Asian rice also suffer this

problem and recent research has shown that providing adequate nitrogen

fertilizer largely overcomes it.

• Research in deep-water rice is vital and long overdue. The resources

available—climate, water, and growing area—along with

A collection of about 4,000 samples of seeds of wild and cultivated African rice, as

well as Asian rice landraces that have been cultivated in Africa for a long time, is held at

ORSTOM and IRAT-CIRAD. It results from 14 collecting missions in 12 African

countries. Eighty-five percent are cultivated landraces (both African and Asian); 15

percent are wild African species.

This research was done by Robert H. Dilday, USDA-ARS Rice Production and Weed

Control Research Unit, P.O. Box 287, Stuttgart, Arkansas 72160, USA.

AFRICAN RICE 31

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proper research could perhaps triple production of deep-water rice in the

Niger's inland delta. This is one area of research that can do something

toward reducing hunger in one of the regions of Africa most in need of

help.

Genetic Improvement

Although the current African types shed grain more readily than the Asian

ones, some improvements have been bred into dryland varieties. Additional

research emphasizing seed shattering could make a big difference. Because the

gene for nonshattering is recessive, the selection of nonshattering types should be

rapid, and true breeding should be immediate. Other improvements might include

selection for resistance to disease. This resistance exists in the various genotypes,

and the major problem is not to lose these local types as Asian rice spreads even

further. For the uplands, any form of rice must resist blast and sheath blight. All

types must also resist rice yellow-mottle virus; some local cultivars already do.

For areas dependent on seasonal flooding, varieties must resist lodging and

respond to fertilizer; the transplant types must tolerate widely varying periods of

growth in the nursery (while farmers await the onset of the unpredictable natural

flooding).

Researchers are at present "mapping" the chromosomes of both African and

Asian rice, identifying the portions that control various features of the plant.

This powerful modern technique will "jumpstart" the genetic improvement of

African rice (see box, page 34). Perhaps it could also facilitate the transfer of

useful genetic material between the two.

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Name

Oryza glaberrima Steudel

Synonym

Oryza barthii ssp. glaberrima

Common Names

English: African rice, glaberrima rice

French: riz pluvial africain, vieux riz, riz africain, riz flottant

Cameroon: erisi (Banyong)

Guinea: Baga-malé, malé, riz des Baga

Mali: Issa-mo (river rice), mou-bér (great rice)

Sierra Leone: kebelei, mba, mbei (Mende), mala (Kissi), Kono, pa (Temne)

Information from G. Second.

AFRICAN RICE 32

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Description

African rice is an annual grass that grows generally between 66 and 120 cm

tall. It is highly variable. The dryland types have smooth, simple culms that can

form roots at the lower nodes and are simply branched up to the panicle (flower

cluster). The floating types can form branches and even roots at the upper nodes.

The panicles are stiff, smooth, and compact. The flowers are self-fertilizing;

however, some inter- and intraspecific cross-pollination occurs.

From a distance, Asian rice and African rice are similar in appearance.

However, African rice has diminutive ligules (small, thin membranes found at the

base of the leaf where it joins the stem). Its compact panicles have less

branching. Its spikelets lack lawns. It is completely annual and dies after setting

seed. Asian rice, on the other hand, continues growing so that late in the season

the two can look strikingly different.

Distribution

African rice is important mainly throughout the southwestern region of

West Africa, but it can be found as far east as Lake Chad, especially in the lands

of the Sahel that are seasonally flooded by the Niger, Volta, and other rivers.

It has apparently been introduced to India. Also, it may have been taken to

Brazil by seventeenth-century Portuguese explorers. Somehow it has also reached

El Salvador and Costa Rica.

Cultivated Varieties

Many cultivars of African rice have been obtained by natural crossings and

inbreeding, giving forms with compact panicles and heavy grains. In particular,

there are numerous swamp varieties suited to different soil and drainage

conditions.

In northern Mali alone are found about 30 cultivars of the floating

type.

Examples of upland varieties of African rice are ITA 208, IRAT 112,

Mutant 18, IRAT 104, and ISA 6.

In Upper Gambia, Guinea, and Senegal (Casamance) can be found a special

group of African-rice genotypes with enhanced recessive

It was collected there in the 1950s by Roland Porteres, a French botanist who

specialized in studying West African grasses and was a pioneer in bringing the promise of

African rice to world attention.

One researcher collected about 180 varieties in the inland Niger delta. P. Martin.

1976. Amélioration des conditions de production du riz flottant au Mali (période

19631-973). L'Agronomie Tropicale 31(2):194-201.

Information from W. Schreurs.

Information from J. Ayuk-Taken.

AFRICAN RICE 33

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COULD AFRICAN RICE GO HIGH-TECH?

The world's rice research is overwhelmingly focused on Asian rice, but

the remarkable developments now emerging from laboratories may bring

big advances to African rice, on the side. Following are examples.

Gene Mapping. Molecular biologists have recently ''marked" the

locations on rice chromosomes where genes for certain genetic attributes

are carried. These markers can be used to track the genes for those traits.

The ability to determine whether a desired gene is present or absent in any

sample bestows enormous power. It can, for instance, help find a desired

gene in wild as well as cultivated species, it can find a "hidden" gene in a

given plant where the gene's outward effects are masked, and it vastly

simplifies the sorting of thousands of crossbred specimens—something

that formerly could take a lifetime of tedious effort.

Gene markers based on restriction-fragment length polymorphisms

(RFLPs) are being developed for both Asian and African rices. For

instance, in 1988 a team at Cornell University found markers for various

traits on the set of 12 chromosomes that (in both species) carries all the

genetic characteristics. That first map had 135 genetic landmarks; later

versions have more than 300.

A particular strength of this new work is that breeders can now work

with very young seedlings. In other words, they can tell whether a certain

gene is present without waiting months for the plant to mature. This can cut

the time needed to breed a new variety—usually 10-12 seasons—in half.

Although the genomes (chromosome sets) of both African and Asian

rice have been mapped, the rest of the effort has so far been solely on

Asian rice. Nonetheless, most results from Asian rice are likely to be easily

transferable. The genome is relatively small, containing only a tenth as

much DNA as maize.

Test-Tube Reproduction. Although until recently no grass had been

cloned using tissue culture, today Asian rice, maize, sorghum, and vetiver

have succumbed. African rice has so far not been cultured in the test tube

but, given the new insights, it seems a likely candidate for this powerful

procedure.

Several teams have managed to regenerate fertile rice plants from

protoplasts—cells from which the wall has been removed. This makes it

even easier to fiddle with rice genes. Already, DNA from bacteria has been

transferred into rice protoplasts. Mature plants, grown from these

protoplasts, have transmitted the implanted DNA to their offspring.

AFRICAN RICE 34

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High-Lysine Forms. In the early 1990s, U.S. Department of Agriculture

researchers discovered Asian rice plants with both high protein quality and

high protein levels. This has raised hopes that extremely nutritious varieties

can be bred for the first time.

To find these new forms, Gideon W. Schaeffer, Francis T. Sharpe, Jr.,

and John Dudley gave small clumps of rice cells a lethal dose of lysine (an

amino acid vital for good health) in a laboratory dish. Only a tiny fraction

survived the treatment. Those few cells, however, could allow more lysine

than normal to be made. The scientists grew them into whole rice plants

and found that the resulting high-lysine plants are true genetic mutants and

therefore suitable for breeding new commercial varieties. Some of the

crossbreeds have succeeded in producing seed of near-normal weights and

good fertility but with greatly enhanced nutritional quality.

The high-lysine trait is apparently controlled by a single recessive

gene. The scientists have begun isolating this gene so as to provide it to

genetic engineers for incorporation into the world's Asian-rice crop. The

work would likely be easily transferable to create high-lysine forms of its

African cousin.

Hybrids. Both the male and female parts on rice flowers are normally

fertile, but researcher J. Neil Rutger of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

has found that growing certain rice plants in 15-hour daylight makes them

essentially female. The plants never develop fertile pollen. This may provide

a cheap and easy way to boost rice yields to a much higher level than at

present. Because the modified plants cannot pollinate themselves, they are

ready-made for pollination by other plants. Any pollination, therefore,

produces hybrids, which are often known to produce robust and high-

yielding plants. This process has not yet been tested on African rice, but

Rutger believes that it might well work.

Asaf Hybrids. Recent decades have seen several dozen research

papers on the genetic and morphological results of crossing Asian rice with

African rice. Most have emerged from laboratories in Japan, Taiwan, and

China. The driving force behind them appears to be the attempt to raise the

yield of Asian rice by forming hybrids.

At least in principle, crosses between African rice and Asian rice might

improve the yield of either or both. Although the botanical literature stresses

their incompatibility, the two are genetically close. Both are self-pollinating

diploids (2n = 24) and possess the same genome, which rice geneticists

call AA.

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characters such as white husks, spikelets persisting to maturity, and

vegetative and floral organs without anthocyanins. These seem to indicate a

secondary region of diversity and may be particularly valuable genetic resources.

Environmental Requirements

Daylength

Varies from neutral to strongly sensitive, depending on variety. However,

most dryland types now in use are sensitive to photoperiod. They flower with the

advent of the dry season. On the other hand, most floating types (at least in

northern Mali) show little sensitivity to daylength.

Rainfall

Some upland varieties can produce adequately with precipitation as low as

about 700 mm.

Altitude

From sea level to 1,700 m.

Low Temperature

Average temperatures below about 25°C retard growth and reduce yields.

Below about 20°C these effects are pronounced.

High Temperature

African rice does well at temperatures above 30°C. Above about 35°C,

however, spikelet fertility drops off noticeably.

Soil Type

Some cultivars apparently can outperform Asian rice on alkaline sites as

well as on phosphorus-deficient sites. Not unexpectedly, however, the crop

performs best on alluvial soils.

Related Species

At least two of African rice's close relatives are regularly gathered for food,

often in sufficient abundance to appear in the markets.

Orza barthii (Oryza breviligulata)

is an annual that commonly occurs in

seasonally flooded areas from Mauritania to Tanzania and from the Sudan to

Botswana. It is the wild progenitor of cultivated

The nomenclature of wild rices in Africa has been very confused. The names Oryza

stapfii, Oryza breviligulata, and Oryza barthii often occur with uncertain usage. Much of

the older literature is rendered useless by this. It is now considered that Oryza barthii is the

direct ancestor of Oryza glaberrima. The name Oryza breviligulata is now considered

invalid, as is Oryza stapfii the name formerly given to the weedy races of African rice.

AFRICAN RICE 36

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African rice. It can form meadows in inundated areas. Its grain falls off so easily

that it must be carefully collected by hand. (People use a basket or calabash, and

sometimes they tie the stalks in knots to make harvesting easier.) It tastes good

and is sometimes sold in markets. However, wherever rice is cultivated, this plant

is regarded mostly as a weed to be eradicated. Certain strains of this species are

immune to bacterial blight of rice (Xanthomonas), which could give them a

valuable future as genetic resources.

Oryza longistaminata is a common wild rice found throughout tropical

Africa as far south as Namibia and Transvaal, as well as Madagascar. Unlike the

other species, it is a perennial with rhizomes. It is tall and outcrossing. It usually

grows in creeks and drainage canals and reproduces by suckers, often setting few

seeds. Nonetheless, these meager grains are sought in times of shortage.

S. Devadath. 1983. A strain of Oryza barthii an African wild rice immune to bacterial

blight of rice. Current Science (Bangalore) 52(1): 27-28.

AFRICAN RICE 37

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Finger Millet

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is hardly "lost." Indeed, it is one of the few

special species that currently support the world's food supplies. This African

native probably originated in the highlands of Uganda and Ethiopia, where

farmers have been growing it for thousands of years. In parts of eastern and

southern Africa as well as in India, it became a staple upon which millions

depend. And its annual world production is at least 4.5 million tons of grain, of

which Africa produces perhaps 2 million tons.

For all its importance, however, finger millet is grossly neglected both

scientifically and internationally. Compared to the research lavished on wheat,

rice, and maize, for instance, it receives almost none. Most of the world has never

heard of it, and even many countries that grow it have left it to languish in the

limbo of a "poor person's crop," a "famine food," or, even worse, a "birdseed.''

Further, in recent years this neglected crop has started an ominous slide that

could propel it to oblivion even in Africa. In fact, it has declined so rapidly in

southern Africa, Burundi, Rwanda, and Zaire, for instance, that some people

predict that in a few years it will be hard to find—even where until recently it

was the predominant cereal. In those areas it clings to existence only in plots that

are grown for use on feast days and other occasions demanding prestige fare.

The world's attitude towards finger millet must be reversed. Of all major

cereals, this crop is one of the most nutritious. Indeed, some varieties appear to

have high levels of methionine, an amino acid lacking in the diets of hundreds of

millions of the poor who live on starchy foods such as cassava and plantain.

Outsiders have long marveled at how people in Uganda and southern Sudan could

develop such strapping physiques and work as hard as they do on just one meal a

day. Finger millet seems to be the main reason.

This crop has many other advantages as well. Its grain tastes better than

most; Africans who know it usually prefer finger millet over all others. The plant

is also productive and thrives in a variety of

This is its main use in the United States, for example.

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environments and conditions. Moreover, its seeds can be stored for years without

insect damage, which makes them lifesavers for famine-prone areas.

Given all these qualities, it is perhaps hard to understand why finger millet is

being rejected. But the reason is simple. People are giving it up in favor of maize,

sorghum, and especially cassava because producing finger millet takes a lot of

work.

The truth is that finger millet, as produced at present, demands a dedication

to drudgery that, given a choice, few people are willing to invest. Part of the

terrible toil is in weeding the fields, part in handling the harvest, and part in

processing the grain.

PROSPECTS

Even though finger millet is declining in the heartland where 30 years ago it

was the major crop of the land, all is not lost. Indeed, if immediate attention is

given, the impediments causing the decline will probably be eliminated. In fact,

there are already signs that the slide may be bottoming out. Prices paid for finger

millet have risen dramatically in some places, and the crop is enjoying something

of a resurgence—and a highly profitable one at that. In Kenya, for instance, the

grain currently sells at more than twice the price of sorghum and maize.

Zimbabwe, too, the government offers an attractive producer price, which has

tended to slow the decline. And Uganda's most recent statistics indicate that

finger millet still occupies 50 percent of its cereal area.

Africa

If this crop is given proper attention, it has the following possibilities within

Africa.

Humid Areas

Excellent prospects. Certain varieties are adapted to heat, humidity, and

tropical conditions. (Finger millet was once the principal staple for people in

southern Sudan and northern Uganda, for instance.) Given research, recognition,

and sympathetic policies, production could expand dramatically.

At least one reviewer speculates that abandoning this nutritious grain millet for the

less nutritious ones is "likely one of the causes of increasing famine in many areas."

What is more, the government-controlled price (630 shillings per quintal, or $0.29 per

kilo in 1991) is only half the open-market price (1,200-1,400 shillings per quintal, or $0.60

per kilo).

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Finger millet seedheads look like "hands" with the grain contained in the

"digits," hence the name. Some of the hands are curled into "fists." The crop is

especially appreciated by the peoples in eastern and northern Uganda. To them,

it has a high social value. They traditionally hold celebrations for the new

harvest, and they serve finger millet bread to visitors and neighbors whom they

want to impress. In the Uganda region, however, the people prefer finger millet

in the form of hot porridge served with either sugar or banana juice.

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Finger millet is grown throughout eastern and southern Africa, but especially in

the subhumid uplands of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zaire, Zambia, and

Zimbabwe. The crop originated somewhere in the area that today is Uganda.

Dry Areas

Fair prospects. Finger millet is not as drought tolerant as pearl millet or even

sorghum, but it could play a much greater role in savanna areas that get at least

moderate rainfall.

Upland Areas

Excellent prospects. Certain finger millet landraces are fully adapted to

highland conditions. In Africa the crop is usually grown at altitudes between

1,000 and 2,000 m and in Nepal it is grown at altitudes up to at least 2,400 m.

Other Regions

Finger millet is certainly not being abandoned in Asia. Indeed, India's

national yields have increased 50 percent since 1955.

Moreover,

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in Nepal, the finger millet area is expanding at the rate of 8 percent per year.

Any

international efforts to promote and improve the plant appear to be as beneficial

to Asia as to Africa.

This high-methionine grain might also be beneficial for use in weaning

foods and in many other cereal products in parts of the world (Latin America and

North America, for instance) where it is now largely ignored.

USES

This is a versatile grain that can probably be used in dozens of types of

foods, including many that are quite unlike its traditional ones. Its several major

uses include the following:

• Porridge. The small grains—which are usually brown but occasionally

white—are commonly boiled into a thick porridge.

• Bread. Some finger millet is ground into flour and used for bread and

various other baked products. All are relished for their flavor and aroma.

• Malt. Malted finger millet (the sprouted seeds) is produced as a food in a

few places. It is nutritious, easily digested, and is recommended

particularly for infants and the elderly.

• Beverages. Much finger millet in Africa is used to make beer. Its amylase

enzymes readily convert starch to sugar. Indeed, finger millet has much

more of this "saccharifying" power than does sorghum or maize; only

barley, the world's premier beer grain, surpasses it. In Ethiopia, finger

millet is also used to make arake, a powerful distilled liquor.

• Fodder. Finger millet straw makes good fodder—better than that from

pearl millet, wheat, or sorghum. It contains up to 61 percent total

digestible nutrients.

• Popped Products. Finger millet can be popped. It is widely enjoyed in this

tasty form in India (see page 298).

Most of the increase occurred between 1955 and 1975 and resulted from genetic

improvement of India's traditional landraces. Subsequent increases were due to crosses

between those and new strains introduced from Africa.

In Nepal the crop has a special niche: during monsoon rains, it continues growing

well, even when the soil is almost waterlogged and where the nutrients have been leached

out by the daily downpours.

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Edible portion (g) 95 Cystine 1.7

Moisture (g) 12 Isoleucine 4.0

Food energy (Kc) 334 Leucine 7.8

Protein (g) 7.3 Lysine 2.5

Carbohydrates (g) 74 Methionine 5.0

Fats (g) 1.3 Phenylalanine 4.1

Fiber (g) 3.2 Threonine 3.1

Ash (g) 2.6 Tryptophan 1.3

Vitamin A (RE) 6 Tyrosine 4.1

Thiamin (mg) 0.24 Valine 6.4

Riboflavin (mg) 0.11

Niacin (mg) 1.0

Vitamin C (mg) 1

Calcium (mg) 358

Chloride (mg) 84

Copper (mg) 0.5

Iodine (µg) 10

Iron (mg) 9.9

Magnesium (mg) 140

Manganese (mg) 1.9

Molybdenum (µg) 2

Phosphorus (mg) 250

Potassium (mg) 314

Sodium (mg) 49

Zinc (mg)

1.5

No single set of numbers can adequately convey the nutritional promise

of a grain as variable as finger millet.The numbers in these pages should be

taken withcaution. The dozen or someasurements that have been

reportedgenerally agree on most ofthe different nutrients. However,

proteincontents ranging from 6 to 14 percent have been claimed. The levels

offat (1-1.4 percent) and foodenergy (323-350 Kc) that are normally

givenare fairly consistentand are about the same as in maize. However,in

some samples they seem to be much higher. The situation regardingiron is

somewhat similar.Most analyses give the figure as about 5 mg per100 g.

But there havebeen two reports of iron exceeding 17 mg.

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COMPARATIVE QUALITY

Figures reported for the essential amino acids are generally consistent,

but 3 percent methionine is commonly referred to in the literature. Possibly,

this was based on degerminated flour. Even that figure is outstanding for a

cereal grain.

In this chart, we have compared whole-grain finger millet with the

standard figures for maize. These are perhaps not fair comparisons, but

they do accurately reflect the differences between the forms in which each

food is normally eaten.

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NUTRITION

The grain's protein content (7.4 percent) is comparable to that of rice (7.5

percent). However, it shows considerable variation, and at least one Indian

cultivar contains as much as 14 percent protein.

The main protein fraction (eleusinin) has high biological value, with good

amounts of tryptophan, cystine, methionine, and total aromatic amino acids.

All

of these are crucial to human health and growth and are deficient in most cereals.

For this reason alone, finger millet is an important preventative against

malnutrition. The methionine level—ranging around 5 percent of protein—is of

special benefit, notably for those who depend on plant foods for their protein.

Finger millet is also a rich source of minerals. Some samples contain 0.33

percent calcium, 5-30 times more than in most cereals. The phosphorus and iron

content can also be high.

AGRONOMY

In Asia, finger millet is planted in rows and managed much like other

cereals. But in Africa it is usually handled differently. Unlike maize, sorghum, or

pearl millet—all of which are planted at individual stands in a rough seedbed—

finger millet is traditionally planted in Africa by broadcasting its tiny seeds. This

demands a very fine seedbed and means that the farmers must work hard and

long, both to prepare the land and to weed the young plants.

Two crops a year are possible with early-maturing types.

HARVESTING AND HANDLING

In most of Africa the crop is harvested by hand. Individual heads are cut off

with a knife, leaving a few centimeters of stalk attached. These are piled in heaps

for a few days, which fosters a fermentation whose heat and hydrolysis makes the

seeds easier to thresh.

Finger millet seeds are so small that weevils cannot squeeze inside. In fact,

its unthreshed heads resist storage pests so well they can be stored for 10 years or

more without insect damage. (It is said that if kept dry the seed may remain in

good condition for up to 50 years!)

Yields are variable but (compared to those of other grains in the area) are

generally good. In Uganda, for example, a threshed yield of 1,800 kg per hectare

is regarded as average. In India, on reasonable

"Total aromatic acids" is the combination of phenylalanine and tyrosine.

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dryland sites, yields may run to about 1,000 kg per hectare, and on irrigated sites a

normal average is more than 2,000 kg per hectare. Yields of 5,000-6,000 kg per

hectare have been obtained under ideal irrigated conditions. Similar yields have

been obtained in Nepal even under rainfed conditions.

LIMITATIONS

As has been noted, the small size of the seeds is a serious drawback. It

makes the crop difficult to handle at all stages.

Weeding is a particular problem. In Africa the dominant weed, a wild

relative of the crop, looks so much like finger millet in its early stages that only

skilled observers and close scrutiny can tell them apart. The problem is

compounded by the practice of broadcasting seed. To weed the resulting jumbled

stands, people must inspect every plant, even going through on hands and knees.

Finger millet is subject to bird predators—notably to the notorious quelea

(see Appendix A).

By and large, the plant suffers little from diseases and insects, but a

ferocious fungal disease called "blast" can devastate whole fields.

Finger millet is almost entirely self-pollinating and crosses between

different strains can be made only with difficulty. Until recently, genetic

improvement was limited to pedigree-based selection. However, in Uganda a few

plants with male sterility have now been discovered. These should ease the way

to breeding methods in which different lines can be crossed without trouble.

Because the seeds are so small, it takes skill and much effort to convert

finger millet into flour—particularly by hand. Even hammer mills have

difficulty. They must be fitted with very fine screens and run at high speed.

Recently, however, a special mill for millet has been devised (see next page).

NEXT STEPS

If finger millet is ever to be rescued, now is the time. The key is to find ways

to present its plight and promise to the public and politicians and to develop its

markets. A few motivated individuals could do much here. Among helpful

actions might be a pan-African finger millet conference, where researchers and

others could compare methods used to grow it, prepare it, and sell it in the

various nations. This

Information from K.W. Riley.

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PROCESSING FINGER MILLET

Milling

Mechanical milling is of course well known; for wheat, rice, and maize,

it is a major industry. But for finger millet, this primary step in the

commercial processing of a food grain is essentially unknown. Machinery

for rubbing the bran (embryo) off finger millet has never been available,

perhaps through a lack of interest but mainly because the grain is

exceptionally difficult to mill by machine. Finger millet, therefore, is usually

eaten as a whole-grain flour, and the presence of oil in the embryo means

that its shelf life is short and its commercial use limited.

Finger millet seed is a challenge to mill because it is very small and

because its seed coat is bound tightly to the edible part (endosperm)

inside. Moreover, the grain is so soft and friable that conventional milling

equipment cannot remove the outside without crushing the inside.

However, farmers have long known that moistening finger millet (for about

30 minutes) toughens the bran and reduces its grip enough that it can be

mechanically separated without crushing the rest.

A machine for doing this has now been developed in India. This so-

called "mini millet mill" consists of a water mixer, a plate grinder, and

various sifter attachments. It is a versatile device in which debranning and

sizing the endosperm (into either flour or semolina) take place in a single

operation. It yields fairly white products. It can also be used to process

wheat, maize, sorghum, and pearl millet and will even remove the outer

husk from finger millet seeds if the clearance between the grinder plates is

reduced.

This machine, and others like it, could initiate a new era for finger millet

as a processed grain of commerce. The flour would then have a good shelf

life and could be trucked to the cities and sold in stores as are wheat, rice,

and maize. Commercial horizons would open up that have never before

been contemplated.*

Malting

Finger millet could be the key to providing cheap and nutritious foods

for solving, at last, the malnutrition that each year kills millions of babies

throughout the warmer parts of the world.

As is described elsewhere (notably in appendixes C and D), the

process of germinating finger millet activates enzymes that break down the

complex structures of starches into sugars and other simple carbohydrates

that are easy to digest. The enzymes

* For more information, contact N.G. Malleshi, Central Food Technological Research

Institute (CFTRI), V.V. Mohalla PO, Mysore 570 013, India.

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are of course there to benefit the seeds in which they occur—to

mobilize food for the growing seedling; but long ago people found that they

could use them also to break up starches from other sources. This process

(usually called malting) became the first step in making beer and liquor out

of starchy foods such as potatoes, maize, rice, or sorghum (see page 168).

What has been overlooked to a large extent is that malting can be used

for more than just brewing. Indeed, it is probably the key to making cheap,

digestible, liquid foods with little effort and no extra cooking fuel. These

foods are particularly promising for children facing the life-threatening

dietary switch from mother's milk to solid foods.

Adding a tiny amount of malted grain turns a bowl of hot starchy

porridge into a watery liquid. The resulting food matches the viscosity of a

bottled baby food, such as those sold in American supermarkets. A child

who is too small or too weak to get down solids can then get a full meal—

and get it out of the food its mother is preparing for the rest of the family.

The germinated grain acts as a catalyst to liquefy any of the world's

major starchy foods: wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, potatoes, cassava

(manioc), yams, and the rest. Moreover, it does more than turn those

staples into liquid form: it predigests the starches, making the food easy for a

body to absorb, and (by releasing sugars) it renders even the blandest

staples palatable. The malted grain is readily available, cheap, and safe to

eat. It should develop healthy bodies and fully functioning brains in the

millions of children whose health and happiness is now jeopardized by

malnutrition.

Of all the world's cereal grains, finger millet is second only to barley in

its ability to hydrolyze starches (''malting power"). And it has the inestimable

value of growing in the latitudes where malnutrition is rife. (Barley is strictly a

temperate-zone resource.)

But for all its potential to benefit the malnourished, not much attention

has been paid to malting internationally. Only in India and Nepal have

malt-based children's foods been intensively studied. In both countries, food

scientists have created malted-grain products that can overcome

malnutrition. And in almost every product, malted finger millet was the prime

ingredient.

The fact that malting is a cheap and widely understood process that

can be easily accomplished in the home or village and requires no fuel or

special equipment is a major benefit. This means that top-quality weaning

foods can be made by the poor, who cannot afford to buy commercial

baby-food concoctions.

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meeting would provide the opportunity to exchange experiences and to begin

the process of preparing papers, pamphlets, recipes, and perhaps a monograph.

Another might be the establishment of a "finger millet action program" to share

seeds and research results in the future. There might even be established a pan-

African finger millet "SWAT" team to provide advice and stimulus to the

countries where finger millet is now declining toward economic extinction.

Rescuing this crop may be easier than now seems probable. Lifestyles and

eating habits may have changed, but in much of Africa people still appreciate

finger millet. Subsistence farmers like finger millet also. Every seed sown can

return between 200 and 500 seeds (other grain crops seldom go above 100 even

under ideal conditions). And this crop has many uses. To those whose very lives

and livelihoods depend on what they grow, its flexibility is vital.

Beyond Africa, finger millet should also be given a higher research priority.

It is a good way to help the rural poor in parts of Asia. Much of the spectacular

rise of wheat occurred in areas where irrigation could be used. Overcoming

finger millet's yield constraints would, more importantly, benefit rainfed

agriculture.

Research Needs

Research is needed on all aspects of this plant, which now is little known to

scientists in general. ICRISAT is conducting research on it, but more effort is

needed. Research operations might include those discussed below.

Trials in New Areas

Entrepreneurs in the United States as well as in Australia and other countries

that specialize in cereal breeding could probably do much to benefit this crop. It

is already grown in a small way in the United States. It grows well, but so far is

used only for birdseed. Nonetheless, it might support a small specialty grain

industry for local and national food uses. And enlisting the country's outstanding

cereal-science capabilities could perhaps transform this crop's potential

worldwide.

Farming Methods

As far as Africa is concerned, finger millet's greatest immediate needs lie

not so much in plant breeding as in farming practices. Reducing the current

drudgery involved with its production would bring the biggest and quickest

benefits.

Surprisingly, techniques for making finger millet production less

For crops like these, perhaps we need a whole new measure of performance, one that

takes into account not just the yield in the field but the all-around value to people's

welfare.

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laborious can probably be employed rapidly and widely. For instance, planting

the seed in rows would dramatically slash the need for weeding. One or two

hoeings (or perhaps a layer of mulch) would eliminate most of the weeds with

little further effort. To make this practical, however, a device is needed that can

deliver small seed with precision. It would have to be easy to make and simple to

use. Such devices do indeed exist (see Appendix A) but have not yet been

introduced to finger millet farmers.

Examples of other types of farming practices worth exploring are the

following:

• Minimum tillage seeding.

• Wide rows for water capture.

• Control of birds.

• Intercropping or undersowing with legumes. (The foliage from

leguminous shrubs or ground cover may be especially helpful by

supplying nitrogen to the crop.)

• Sowing or transplanting with other crops. (In Nepal, for instance, it is

often planted with maize.)

• Weeding using animal power and other labor-saving techniques.

• Developing ox-drawn implements for planting, cultivating, harvesting,

and threshing finger millet.

Erosion Control

In some parts of southern and eastern Africa finger millet has been

abandoned because it "causes" severe soil erosion. In these areas, farmers

typically clear forest from a hillside, burn it, and sow finger millet in the ashes.

The tiny plants hold soil poorly, and it easily washes away. For such sites there is a

need for alternative methods of erosion control. One example might be vetiver

(see Appendix A). Another is mulching with stubble from the previous crop.

On the other hand, other parts of Africa actually employ finger millet for

erosion control. In fact, when broadcast—or even line sown—across the slope it

is good for reducing erosion. Data from Zambia, for example, show that the plant

prevents erosion more effectively than legumes do. Farmers in Nepal also report

that finger millet "holds the soil."

Plant Breeding

In its genetic development as a crop, finger millet is about where wheat was

in the 1890s. Many landrace types are known but have not been systematically

evaluated, codified, or analyzed, Thus it is likely that the best-yielding, best-

tasting, and best-handling types have not been isolated or created out of the

massive gene pool. Since the 1890s, average yields of wheat have risen from

about 500 kg per

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RAGI

Finger millet crossed the Indian Ocean more than 1,000 years ago and

since then has become extremely important in South Asia. In India, where it

is generally called "ragi," this native African grain is now grown on more

than 2 million hectares.

In its new home, scientists and farmers have created numerous ragi

races. There are, for instance, plants that are purple; seedheads that are

short, long, "open," "curved," or "fisty"; seeds that range from almost black

to orange-red; and there is also a popular type whose seeds are pure

white. Some ragi varieties are dwarfs (less than 50 cm), some tiller

profusely, some are slow to mature and are grown mainly under irrigation,

while others mature quickly and lend themselves to dryland production.

Ragi is considered one of India's best dryland crops, and most of it is

produced without supplemental water. The plant is both adaptable and

resilient: it survives on lateritic soils, it withstands some salinity, and it has

few serious diseases or pests. Ragi also yields well at elevations above

those suitable for most other tropical cereals. In the Himalaya foothills, for

example, it is cultivated up to slightly over 2,000 m above sea level.

Despite its importance in the Himalayas, about 75 percent of the ragi

area lies in South India, particularly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra

Pradesh. In parts of this vast region farmers can get two crops a year; in

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh three are not unknown. Wherever the

rains at sowing time are uncertain, the farmers often transplant ragi like

rice. In fact, the two crops are commonly grown in a "relay'' that is good for

both. For instance, in May a farmer may start out by sowing ragi seeds in

the nursery; in June, he (or she) transplants the seedlings to the field and

replants the nursery with rice seeds; in August, the ragi crop is harvested

and the rice seedlings are put out into the just vacated fields. This process

is efficient, highly productive, and a good insurance against the vagaries of

the weather.

Ragi yields as much as 5,000 kg of grain per hectare. Because the

seed can be stored for decades (some say 50 years), it is highly valued as a

reserve against famines.

However, ragi is much more than just a famine food. In certain regions

it is an everyday staple. It is, for instance, a principal cereal of the farming

classes in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, as well as in the

Himalaya hill tracts (including those of Nepal). The grain is mainly

processed into flour, from which is made a variety of cakes, puddings,

porridges, and other

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Indian farmer holding ragi (ICRISAT).

tasty foods. Some, however, is malted and turned into beer as well as

into easily digested foods for infants and invalids.

As in its African homeland, ragi enjoys a reputation for being both

nutritious and sustaining, and Indian studies lend scientific support to this

view. Certain grain types, particularly the white ones, can match the most

nutritious local cereals, at least in protein content.

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hectare to more than 4,000 kg per hectare; finger millet's could rise similarly

and much more quickly.

Various finger millet landraces possess genes for blast resistance, robust

growth, early vigor, large panicle size, high finger number and branching, and

high-density grain. Similarly, there are water-efficient types with high carbon

dioxide fixation and low leaf area that could be outstanding new crops for

semiarid conditions. Long-glume types with high seed weight are especially

promising for increasing seed size. All of these, and more, are genetic raw

materials that could transform this crop.

The grain is already nutritious, but it might be improved even more. As

noted, types containing up to 14 percent protein are known. Also, it is a high-

methionine protein and, of all the essential amino acids, is the most difficult to

find in grain-based foods. Thus these finger millets could be a "super cereal" in

nutritional terms.

White-seeded forms that make good unleavened bread and bakery products

are also known, and they too are undeveloped. Today's crop in Africa is

overwhelmingly the coarse, rusty-red form that is mainly useful for porridge and

brewing beer.

Hybrids between Indian and African varieties seem promising as well. These

high-yielding "Indaf" types are popular in India. Similar hybridization and

selection for improved Indaf varieties for African conditions is now being

started.

Hybridization, however, is difficult and mutation breeding is another

approach worth exploring.

Some of finger millet's relatives have interesting traits that might be

transferable. Among wild Eleusine species are perennials that might lend some of

their enduring characteristics to finger millet. Others have genes for tolerance of

heat, cold, drought, and waterlogging, as well as resistance to salinity and an

ability to mobilize phosphorus and utilize nitrogen efficiently.

Less dramatic but more immediately practical plant-breeding needs are the

fine-tuning of today's varieties. The most important objectives are resistance to

blast,

helminthosporium (another fungus), striga (parasitic witchweed),

lodging, stressful soil and moisture conditions, and grain that can be more easily

dehulled and ground. Other objectives might include fast seedling growth to

compete better with weeds, shade-tolerant types for relay and intercropping, and

types with anthocyanin pigmentation in the leaves (possibly obtainable through

This work is beginning at the SADCC/ICRISAT Center at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (see

Research Contacts).

These wild relatives are currently being collected by IPGRI, but several that could be

part of the primary or secondary gene pool are not yet represented by even a single

collection.

Recently, a number of blast-resistant types have been selected at ICRISAT and are

undergoing yield tests in different sites.

FINGER MILLET 54

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induced mutation), which could be spotted easily in the fields and would make

weeding a much easier task.

Post Production Research

Reducing the labor to dehull and to grind grain is obviously a vital need.

Less urgent needs include: (1) improvement of malting quality (important both

for brewing and for making high-methionine weaning foods); and (2) new

methods of processing, such as parboiling, milling, and puffing (see

Appendix B).

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Name

Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertner

Common Names

Afikaans (and Dutch): vogel gierst

Arabic: tailabon

Bantu: bule

English: finger millet, African millet; koracan

French: petit mil, eleusine cultivée, coracan, koracan

German: Fingerhirse

Swahili: wimbi, ulezi

Ethiopia: dagussa (Amharic/Sodo), tokuso (Amharic), barankiya (Oromo)

India: ragi

Kenya: wimbi (kiswahili), mugimbi (Kikuyu)

Malawi: mawere, lipoko, usanje, khakwe, mulimbi, lupodo, malesi, mawe

Nepal: koddo

The Sudan: tailabon (Arabic), ceyut (Bari)

Tanzania: mwimbi, mbege

Uganda: bulo

Zambia: kambale, lupoko, mawele, majolothi, amale, bule

Zimbabwe: rapoko, zviyo, njera, rukweza, mazhovole, uphoko, poho

Description

Finger millet is a tufted annual growing 40-130 cm tall, taking between 2.5

and 6 months to mature. It has narrow, grass like leaves and many tillers and

branches. The head consists of a group of digitately arranged spikes.

It is a tetraploid.

Information from A. Shakoor.

FINGER MILLET 55

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Distribution

Finger millet derives from the wild diploid Eleusine africana.

There is

archaeological evidence that before maize was introduced it was a staple crop of

the southern Africa region. Today it is found throughout eastern and southern

Africa and is the principal cereal grain in Uganda, where it is planted on more

than 0.4 million hectares (especially in northern and western regions), as well as

in northeastern Zambia. It is also an important backup "famine food" as far south

as Mozambique.

Finger millet does not appear to have been adopted in ancient Egypt, and it

is said to have reached Europe only about the beginning of the Christian era.

However, it arrived in India much earlier, probably more than 3,000 years ago,

and now it is an important staple food in some places, particularly in the hill

country in the north and the south.

Cultivated Varieties

Numerous cultivars have been recognized in India and Africa, consisting of

highland and lowland forms, dryland and irrigation types, grain and beer types,

and early- and late-maturing cultivars. By and large, there are highland races and

lowland races—each adapted to its own climate.

Environmental Requirements

Daylength

Finger millet is a short-day plant, a 12-hour photoperiod being optimum for

the best-known types. It has been successfully grown in the United States as far

north as Davis, California (with considerable problems of photoperiod

sensitivity), and it is widely grown in the Himalayas (30°N latitude); however, it

is mainly produced within 20°N and 20°S latitude. Daylength-neutral types

probably exist.

Rainfall

It requires a moderate rainfall (500-1,000 mm), well distributed during the

growing season with an absence of prolonged droughts. Dry weather is required

for drying the grain at harvest. In drier areas with unreliable rainfall, sorghum and

pearl millet are better suited. In wetter climates, rice or maize is preferable.

Altitude

Most of the world's finger millet is grown at intermediate elevations,

between 500 and 2,400 m. Its actual altitude limits are unknown.

Low Temperature

The crop tolerates a cooler climate than other millets. For an African native,

this crop is surprisingly well adapted to the temperate zones.

This wild ancestor has at least one genome derived from Eleusine indica (Hilu,

1988).

FINGER MILLET 56

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High Temperature

Finger millet thrives under hot conditions. It can grow where temperatures

are as high as 35°C.

In Uganda, the crop grows best where the average

maximum temperature exceeds 27°C and the average minimum does not fall

below 18°C.

Soil Type

The crop is grown on a variety of soils. It is frequently produced on

reddish-brown lateritic soils with good drainage but reasonable water-holding

capacity. It can tolerate some waterlogging.

It seems to have more ability to

utilize rock phosphate than other cereals do.

Information from J.A. Ayuk-Takem.

Thomas, 1970.

In recent trials of nine cereal species subjected to waterlogging from seedling to

heading, finger millet was the most resistant, except for rice. It resisted waterlogging much

better than maize. (Kono et al., 1988.)

In pot experiments, the rock phosphate mobilizing capacity increased in the order

maize: pearl millet: finger millet. (Flack et al., 1987.)

FINGER MILLET 57

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Fonio (Acha)

Fonio (Digitaria exilis and Digitaria iburua) is probably the oldest African

cereal. For thousands of years West Africans have cultivated it across the dry

savannas. Indeed, it was once their major food. Even though few other people

have ever heard of it, this crop still remains important in areas scattered from

Cape Verde to Lake Chad. In certain regions of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and

Nigeria, for instance, it is either the staple or a major part of the diet. Each year

West African farmers devote approximately 300,000 hectares to cultivating

fonio, and the crop supplies food to 3-4 million people.

Despite its ancient heritage and widespread importance, knowledge of

fonio's evolution, origin, distribution, and genetic diversity remains scant even

within West Africa itself. The crop has received but a fraction of the attention

accorded to sorghum, pearl millet, and maize, and a mere trifle considering its

importance in the rural economy and its potential for increasing the food supply.

(In fact, despite its value to millions only 19 brief scientific articles have been

published on fonio over the past 20 years.)

Part of the reason for this neglect is that the plant has been misunderstood by

scientists and other decision makers. In English, it has usually been referred to as

"hungry rice," a misleading term originated by Europeans who knew little of the

crop or the lives of those who used it.

Unbeknownst to these outsiders, the locals

were harvesting fonio not because they were hungry, but because they liked the

taste. Indeed, they considered the grain exotic, and in some places they reserved

it particularly for chiefs, royalty, and special occasions. It also formed part of the

traditional bride price. Moreover, it is still held in such esteem that some

communities continue to use it in ancestor worship.

Not only does this crop deserve much greater recognition, it could have a big

future. It is one of the world's best-tasting cereals. In recent

Information from J. Harlan. In Nigeria it is usually called "acha."

It is important this way to the Dogon, a people of Mali. To them, the whole universe

emerged from a fonio seed—the smallest object in the Dogon experience—a sort of atomic

cosmology. (Information from J. Harlan.)

FONIO (ACHA) 59

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times, some people have made side-by-side comparisons of dishes made with

fonio and common rice and have greatly preferred the fonio.

Fonio is also one of the most nutritious of all grains. Its seed is rich in

methionine and cystine, amino acids vital to human health and deficient in today's

major cereals: wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, barley, and rye. This combination of

nutrition and taste could be of outstanding future importance. Most valuable of

all, however, is fonio's potential for reducing human misery during "hungry

times."

Certain fonio varieties mature so quickly that they are ready to harvest long

before all other grains. For a few critical months of most years these become a

"grain of life." They are perhaps the world's fastest maturing cereal, producing

grain just 6 or 8 weeks after they are planted. Without these special fonio types,

the annual hungry season would be much more severe for West Africa. They

provide food early in the growing season, when the main crops are still too

immature to harvest and the previous year's production has been eaten.

Other fonio varieties mature more slowly—typically in 165-180 days. By

planting a range of quick and slow types farmers can have grain available almost

continually. They can also increase their chances of getting enough food to live

on under even the most changeable and unreliable growing conditions.

Of the two species, white fonio (Digitaria exilis) is the most widely used. It

can be found in farmers' fields from Senegal to Chad. It is grown particularly on

the upland plateau of central Nigeria (where it is generally known as "acha") as

well as in neighboring regions.

The other species, black fonio (Digitaria iburua), is restricted to the Jos-

Bauchi Plateau of Nigeria as well as to northern regions of Togo and Benin.

Its

restricted distribution should not be taken as a measure of relative inferiority:

black fonio may eventually have as much or even greater potential than its now

better-known relative.

PROSPECTS

Unlike finger millet, African rice, sorghum, and other native grains, fonio is

not in serious decline. Indeed, it is well positioned for improved production.

First, it is still widely cultivated and is well known. Second, it is highly

esteemed. (In Nigeria's Plateau State, for example, the present 20,000-ton

production is only a quarter of the projected state demand.

) Third, it tolerates

remarkably poor soil and will grow

Both have white seeds but black fonio has black or dark brown spikelets.

T. Mabbett. 1991. African Farming Jan/Feb:25-26.

FONIO (ACHA) 60

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Fonio has a lacy appearance. It is often less than knee high. (Nazmul Haq)

FONIO (ACHA) 61

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For a crop that is so little known to science, fonio is surprisingly widely grown. It is employed across a huge sweep of West Africa, from the Atlantic

coast almost to the boundary with Central Africa.

FONIO (ACHA) 62

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where little else succeeds. These are good underpinnings for fonio's future

advancement.

Africa

Humid Areas

Low prospects. Fonio is mainly a plant of the savannas and is probably ill

adapted to lowland humid zones. It seems likely to succumb to various fungal and

bacterial diseases. However, white fonio does grow around the Gola Forest in

southeastern Sierra Leone, and black fonio is reportedly cultivated in Zaire and

some other equatorial locations. These special varieties (occasionally misnamed

as Digitaria nigeria) are possibly adapted to hot and humid conditions.

Dry Areas

High prospects. People in many dry areas of West Africa like fonio. They

know that it originated locally, and they have long-established traditions for

cultivating, storing, processing, and preserving it. During thousands of years of

selection and use, they have located types well adapted to their needs and

conditions. Although the plant is not as drought resistant as pearl millet, the fast-

maturing types are highly suited to areas where rains are brief and unreliable.

Upland Areas

Excellent prospects. Fonio is the staple of many people in the Plateau State

of Nigeria and the Fouta Djallon plateau of Guinea, both areas with altitudes of

about 1,000 m.

Other Regions

This plant should not be moved out of its native zones. In more equable

parts of the world it might become a serious weed.

USES

Fonio grain is used in a variety of ways. For instance, it is made into

porridge and couscous, ground and mixed with other flours to make breads,

popped,

and brewed for beer. It has been described as

It is a relative of crabgrass, a European crop introduced to the United States in the

1800s as a possible food and now a much-reviled invader of lawns. However, white fonio

is grown for forage in parts of the United States—apparently without causing problems.

Little or nothing has been reported on popping this crop, but in southern Togo women

put a little fonio into a metal pot and swirl it over a fire. Within a few seconds the grains

begin bursting and bouncing, and the result is a light and puffy white material. Information

from D. Osborn.

FONIO (ACHA) 63

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a good substitute for semolina—the wheat product used to make spaghetti and

other pastas.

In the Hausa region of Nigeria and Benin, people prepare a couscous

(wusu-wusu) out of both types of fonio. In northern Togo, the Lambas brew a

famous beer (tchapalo) from white fonio. In southern Togo, the Akposso and

Akebou peoples prepare fonio with beans in a dish that is reserved for special

occasions.

Fonio grain is digested efficiently by cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, and other

ruminant livestock. It is a valuable feed for monogastric animals, notably pigs and

poultry, because of its high methionine content.

The straw and chaff are also fed

to animals. Both make excellent fodder and are often sold in markets for this

purpose. Indeed, the crop is sometimes grown solely for hay.

The straw is commonly chopped and mixed with clay for building houses or

walls. It is also burned to provide heat for cooking or ash for potash.

NUTRITION

In gross nutritional composition, fonio differs little from wheat. In one white

fonio sample, the husked grain contained 8 percent protein and I percent fat.

In a

sample of black fonio, a protein content of 11.8 percent was recorded.

The difference lies in the amino acids it contains. In the white fonio

analysis, for example, the protein contained 7.3 percent methionine plus cystine.

The amino acid profile compared to that of whole-egg protein showed that except

for the low score of 46 percent for lysine, the other scores were high: 72 for

isoleucine; 90-100 for valine, tryptophan, threonine, and phenylalanine; 127 for

leucine; 175 for total sulfur; and 189 percent for methionine.

This last figure means that fonio protein contains almost twice as much

methionine as egg protein contains. Thus, fonio has important potential not only

as survival food, but as a complement for standard diets.

AGRONOMY

Fonio is usually grown on poor, sandy, or ironstone soils that are considered

too infertile for pearl millet, sorghum, or other cereals. In

Göhl, 1981.

De Lumen et al., 1986.

Carbiener et al., 1960.

Using the FAO, A/E approach. Information from B. Standal. One analysis has

reported a methionine level as high as 5.6 percent.

FONIO (ACHA) 64

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Moisture 10 Cystine 2.5

Food energy (Kc) 367 Isoleucine 4.0

Protein (g) 9.0 Leucine 10.5

Carbohydrate (g) 75 Lysine 2.5

Fat (g) 1.8 Methionine 4.5

Fiber (g) 3.3 Phenylalanine 5.7

Ash (g) 3.4 Threonine 3.7

Thiamin (mg) 0.47 Tryptophan 1.6

Riboflavin (mg) 0.10 Tyrosine 3.5

Niacin (mg) 1.9 Valine 5.5

Calcium (mg) 44

Iron (mg) 8.5

Phosphorus (mg)

177

COMPARATIVE QUALITY

FONIO (ACHA) 65

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Fonio is an extremely adaptable plant that is little affected by climatic or soil

conditions, Much of it is found growing in semiarid areas. In the Fouta Djallon

Plateau of Guinea (shown here), it grows on acidic soils with high aluminum

content that are deadly to other crops. (Nazmul Haq)

FONIO (ACHA) 66

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Guinea's Fouta Djallon region, where fonio is common, the soils are acidic

clays with high aluminum content—a combination toxic to most food crops. It is

generally grown just like upland rice, and the two are frequently produced by the

same farmers. Normally, the seed is broadcast and covered by a light hoeing. It

germinates in 3-4 days and grows very rapidly. This quick establishment and the

heavy seeding rate (usually 10-20 kg of seed per hectare) ensures that the fields

seldom need weeding. In a few cases the crop is transplanted from seedbeds to

give it an even better chance at surviving the harsh conditions.

In Sierra Leone, and probably elsewhere, fonio is often grown following, or

even instead of, wetland rice. This is done particularly when the season proves

too dry for good paddy production and the farmers decide to give up on the rice.

Fonio thus serves as an insurance against total crop failure.

In certain areas, fonio may sometimes be planted together with sorghum or

pearl millet. Indeed, it is frequently the staple, while the other two are considered

reserves. Commonly, farmers in Guinea sow multiple varieties of fonio and then

later fill in any gaps with fast maturing varieties of guinea millet (Brachiaria

deflexar).

HARVESTING AND HANDLING

Fonio grain is handled in traditional ways. The plants are usually cut with a

knife or sickle, tied into sheaves, dried, and stored under cover. Good yields are

normally 600-800 kg per hectare, but more than 1,000 kg per hectare has been

recorded. In marginal areas, yields may drop to below 500 kg and on extremely

poor soils may be merely 150-200 kg per hectare.

Traditionally, the grain is threshed by beating or trampling, and it is dehulled

in a mortar. This is difficult and time-consuming.

The seed stores well.

LIMITATIONS

Because of the lack of attention, fonio is still agronomically primitive. It

suffers from small seeds, low yields, and some seed shattering.

The plant responds to fertilizers, but most types are so spindly that

fertilization makes them top-heavy and they may blow over (lodge).

Portères, 1976. This fonio-like grain is described in the chapter on other cultivated

grains, page 237.

As noted elsewhere, yield figures such as these can be very misleading. They may be

low, but hungry rice produces a yield on sites or in seasons when other cereals yield

nothing whatever.

FONIO (ACHA) 67

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FONIO: IT'S NOT JUST A FAMINE FOOD

Late in 1990, I interviewed a farmer with a largish plot of fonio. It was

just a few kilometers from Bo town, in central Sierra Leone. What especially

intrigued me was that this was not, as I at first supposed, a poverty-stricken

woman's attempt to grow a little food for household subsistence. It was

instead a commercial venture, aimed at the Bo market. There, fonio sells

(cup for cup) at a better price than rice. By selling her crop she would be

able to buy a larger amount of rice. To me, this was a striking confirmation

of the commercial potential of this almost entirely neglected crop. To the

people who know it, fonio is treasured more highly than rice!

Paul Richards

Birds may badly damage the crop in some areas; bird-scaring is usually

necessary in those locations. The plants are also susceptible to smut and other

fungal diseases.

It has been reported that fonio causes soil deterioration, but this appears to

be a misperception. It is often sown on worn-out soils, sometimes even after

cassava (the ultimate crop for degraded lands elsewhere). It is this association

with poor soils that has given rise to the rumor, but the soils were in fact

impoverished long before the fonio was put in.

Some groups dislike black fonio because, compared with the white form, it

is more difficult to dehusk with the traditional pestle.

The seed loses its viability after two years.

Because of its small seed size, the harvest is very difficult to winnow. Sand

tends to remain with the seed and produces gritty foods. It is therefore necessary

to thresh fonio on a hard surface rather than on bare ground. Also, just before

cooking, the grains are usually washed to rid them of any remaining sand.

NEXT STEPS

Clearly, fonio is important, has many agronomic and nutritional virtues, and

could have an impressive future. This crop deserves much greater attention.

Modern knowledge of cereal-crop improvement and dedicated investigations are

likely (at modest cost) to make large advances and improvements. Yields can

almost certainly be raised

FONIO (ACHA) 68

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dramatically, farming methods made less laborious, and markets developed—all

without affecting the plant's resilience and reliability. These results, and more, are

likely to come about quickly once fonio becomes as important to the world's

scientists as it is to West Africa's farmers.

Promotion

General activities to raise awareness of this crop's value and potential

include a monograph, a newsletter, a ''friends of fonio" society, a fonio

cookbook, a series of fonio cook-offs, and fonio conferences. These could be

complemented by publicity, seed distributions, and experiments to test fonio's

farm qualities and cultivation limits.

It should not be too difficult to generate excitement for this "lost gourmet

food of the great ancestors." It might prove a good basis for recreating traditional

cuisines. Even export as a highly nutritious specialty grain is a possibility.

Scientific Underpinnings

Despite its importance, fonio is a crop less than halfway to its potential.

There have been few, if any, attempts to optimize, on a scientific basis, the

process of growing it. Its taxonomy, cultivation, nutritional value, and time to

harvest are only partially documented. Varieties have neither been compared, nor

their seed even collected, on a systematic basis. Little or no research has

been done on postharvest deterioration, storage, or preservation methods.

Germplasm Collection

An early priority should be to collect germplasm.

Varieties are particularly

numerous in the Fouta Djallon Plateau in Guinea and around the upper basins of

the Senegal and Niger Rivers.

Among these will certainly be found some

outstanding types. This alone seems likely to lead to better cultivars that will

bring marked advances in fonio production. The collection should also be

screened to determine if yield is limited by viruses.

If so, the creation of virus-

free seed might also boost yields dramatically.

Seed Size

The smallness of the grain offers a special challenge to cereal scientists: can

the seeds be enlarged—perhaps through selection, hybridization, or other genetic

manipulation?

One reviewer suggested asking village schoolmasters to collect seeds of all the

different types in their areas. He reports getting outstanding assistance in this way on a

project (in northern Nigeria) dealing with another widespread but little-known crop.

Historically, these were the domains of the old empires of Mali, developed in the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and it is there that fonio probably was brought to its

apogee.

In 1985, pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens), a related species that is widely planted

as a tropical forage, was found to carry a stunt virus.

FONIO (ACHA) 69

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Yield

The cause of the low yields needs investigation. Is it because of the sites,

diseases and pests, poor plant architecture, inefficient root structure, lodging,

poor tillering, bolting, or daylength restrictions? What are optimum conditions

for maximum yields? Can fonio's productivity approach that of the better-known

cereals'?

Grain Quality

Cereal chemists should analyze the grains. What kinds of proteins are

present? What are the amino-acid profiles of the different proteins? Nutritionists

should evaluate the biological effectiveness of both the grains and the products

made from them. There are probably happy surprises waiting to be discovered. In

particular, protein fractionation is likely to turn up fractions with methionine and

cystine levels even greater than fonio's already amazingly high average.

The exceptional content of sulfur amino acids (methionine plus cystine)

should make fonio an excellent complement to legumes. Feeding studies to verify

this are in order. The combination could be nutritionally outstanding.

Cytogenetics

As a challenge to geneticists, fonio has a special fascination. It has no

obvious wild ancestor. That it appears to be a hexaploid (2n=6x=54) may help

account for this. Does it, in fact, contain three diploid genomes of different

origin? What are its likely ancestors, and might they be used to increase its seed

size and yield?

Plant Architecture

Lodging is a serious drawback, especially when the soil is fertile. This may

be overcome by dwarfing the plant or endowing stronger stems by plant

breeding. How "free-tillering" are the various types?

Other Uses

Certain other Digitaria species are cultivated exclusively as fodder, whereas

some are notable for their soil-binding properties and ability to produce an

excellent turf. Is fonio also useful for such purposes? Could it, too, become a

valuable all-purpose plant for many regions? Could improved fonio be

"naturalized" in the northern Sahel to increase the availability of wild grain to

nomadic groups?

Sociocultural Factors

How is the crop currently cultivated, distributed, and processed? What roles

are played by social and cultural

Fonio is characterized by the very small size of its seeds. The tiny white grains have

many uses in cooking: porridge, gruel, and couscous, for example. They are also the prime

ingredient in several choice dishes for religious and traditional ceremonies. (Brent

Simpson)

FONIO (ACHA) 70

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factors such as the division of labor, traditional beliefs, and people's

expectations? (Fonio, after all, is seldom if ever grown under optimum

conditions.) Its promotion will succeed best in West Africa if its development is

placed within such local constraints.

Processing

The processing and cooking of this crop is extremely arduous. Unless this

can be relieved, fonio will probably never reach its potential.

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Names

Digitaria exilis Stapf and Digitaria iburua Stapf

Synonyms

Paspalum exile Kippist; Panicum exile (Kippist) A. Chev.; Syntherisma

exilis (Kippist) Newbold; Syntherisma iburua (Stapf) Newbold (for Digitaria

iburua)

Common Names

English: hungry rice, hungry millet, hungry koos, fonio, fundi millet

French: fonio, petit mil (a name also used for other crops)

Fulani: serémé, foinye, fonyo, fundenyo

Bambara: fini

Nigeria: acha (Digitaria exilis, Hausa); iburu (Digitaria iburua, Hausa);

aburo

Senegal: eboniaye, efoleb, findi, fundi

The Gambia: findo (Mandinka)

Togo: (Digitaria iburua); afio-warun (Lamba); ipoga (Somba, Sampkarba);

fonio ga (black fonio); ova (Akposso)

Mali: fani, feni, foundé

Burkina Faso: foni

Guinea: pende, kpendo, founié, pounié

Benin: podgi

Ivory Coast: pom, pohin

Description

As noted, there are actually two species of fonio. Both are erect, free-

tillering annuals. White fonio (Digitaria exilis) is usually 30-75 cm tall. Its

finger-shaped panicle has 2-5 slender racemes up to 15 cm

Black fonio has been known to science only since 1911, when a botanist recognized

that what was growing in fields with pearl millet in the Zaria region of northern Nigeria

was a species new to science.

FONIO (ACHA) 72

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FONIO AS FAST FOOD

As noted elsewhere (especially in Appendix C), a lack of processed

products is holding back Africa's native grains. One grass-roots organization

is doing something about this: it is turning fonio into a convenience food.

In southern Mali, fonio is mainly grown by women on their individual

plots. Perhaps not unexpectedly, then, it is a women's group that has

chosen to foster the grain's greater use. The group aims to raise fonio

consumption by producing a precooked flour.

The project, backed by the Malian Association for the Promotion of the

Young (AMPJ), is staffed and run entirely by women. Their goal is a fast-

cooking fonio that will challenge parboiled rice and pre-packaged pasta

(both of which are usually imported) in the Bamako markets.

The new "instant" fonio comes in 1-kg plastic bags and is ready for

use. It requires no pounding or cleaning. It can be used to prepare all of the

traditional fonio dishes. It is simple to store and handle. It is clean and free

of hulls and dirt. And it requires less than 15 minutes to cook. For the user,

then, it offers an enormous saving in both effort and time.

The project is currently a small one, designed to handle 6 tons of raw

fonio per year. It uses local materials, traditional techniques, and household

equipment: mortars, tubs, calabashes, steaming pots, sieves, matting,

kitchen scales, and small utensils. The women sieve, crush, wash, and

steam-cook the fonio; then they dry and seal the product in the airtight

bags. The most delicate operation is a series of three washes to separate

sand from the fine fonio grains.

The women have organized themselves into small working groups,

formed for (1) the supply of raw materials, (2) production and packaging,

and (3) marketing.

Fonio is considered a prestige food in local culinary customs. Yet, on

the Bamako market this precooked product currently sells at a very

competitive price: between 500 and 550 CFA Francs per kg. (By

comparison, couscous sells at 650-750 CFA Francs.)

This small and homespun operation exemplifies what could and should

be done with native grains throughout Africa. It is good for everyone:

diversifying the diet of city folks, reducing food imports, and, above all,

benefitting the local farmers by giving them a value-added product.

FONIO (ACHA) 73

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long. Black fonio (Digitaria iburua) is taller and may reach 1.4 m. It has

2-11 subdigitate racemes up to 13 cm long.

Although both species belong to the same genus, crossbreeding them seems

unlikely to yield fertile hybrids, as they come from different parts of the same

genus.

The grains of both species range from "extraordinarily" white to fawn yellow

or purplish. Black fonio's spikelets are reddish or dark brown. Both species are

more-or-less nonshattering.

Distribution

Fonio is grown as a cereal throughout the savanna zone from Senegal to

Cameroon. It is one of the chief foods in Guinea-Bissau, and it is also intensively

cultivated and is the staple of many people in northern Nigeria. Fonio is not

grown for food outside West Africa.

Cultivated Varieties

There are no formal cultivars as such, but there are a number of recognized

landraces, mainly based on the speed of maturity.

Environmental Requirements

Daylength

Flowering is apparently insensitive to daylength.

Rainfall

Fonio is extremely tolerant of high rainfall, but not—on the whole—of

excessive dryness. The limits of cultivation (depending on seasonal distribution

of rainfall) are from about 250 mm up to at least 1,500 mm. The plant is mostly

grown where rainfall exceeds 400 mm. By and large, the precocious varieties are

cultivated in dry conditions and late varieties in wet conditions.

Altitude

Although fonio is grown at sea level in, for instance, Sierra Leone, the

Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, its cultivation frequently is above 600 m elevation.

Low Temperature

Unreported.

High Temperature

Unreported.

Soil Type

It is grown mainly on sandy, infertile soils. It can, however, grow on many

poor, shallow, and even rocky soils. Most

Information from G.P. Chapman.

FONIO (ACHA) 74

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varieties do poorly on heavy soils. However, by working with a range of

varieties, one can generally adapt the crop to almost all terrains and exposures;

for example, to fertile or unproductive conditions: sandy, limy, gravelly, or

pebbly soils; slopes; plateaus; valleys; or riverbanks.

FONIO (ACHA) 75

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Pearl Millet

Of all the world's cereals, pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)

is the sixth

most important. Descended from a wild West African grass, it was domesticated

more than 4,000 years ago, probably in what is now the heart of the Sahara

Desert (see map, page 80). Long ago it spread from its homeland to East Africa

and thence to India. Both places adopted it eagerly and it became a staple.

Today, pearl millet is so important that it is planted on some 14 million

hectares in Africa and 14 million hectares in Asia. Global production of its grain

probably exceeds 10 million tons a year,

to which India contributes nearly half.

At least 500 million people depend on pearl millet for their lives.

Despite its importance, however, pearl millet can be considered a "lost" crop

because its untapped potential is still vast. Currently, this grain is an "orphan"

among the significant cereals. It is poorly supported by both science and politics.

In fact, few people outside of India and parts of Africa have ever heard of it. As a

result, it lags behind sorghum and far behind the other major grains in its genetic

development. For instance, its average yields are barely 600 kg per hectare and it

is almost entirely a subsistence crop; perhaps for this last reason alone pearl

millet has attracted little research or industrial support.

Indeed, largely due to neglect, pearl millet is actually slipping backwards.

Production in West Africa during the last two decades has increased by only 0.7

percent a year—the lowest growth rate of any food crop in the region and far less

than the population's growth rate. Furthermore, even this meager increase has

been mainly due to expanding the area cultivated rather than to boosting yields.

Elsewhere in Africa the decline has been even more dramatic. Just 50 years ago,

Most taxonomists today believe that the most valid name for cultivated pearl millet is

Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. Common synonyms are Pennisetum typhoides and

Pennisetum americanum. The crop is also known as "bulrush millet" and in India it is

normally called "bajra."

Exact figures cannot be determined because some countries lump all the millets and

sorghum together in their statistics. Also, many countries cannot provide statistics because

their pearl millet does not enter organized commerce and is therefore never counted.

PEARL MILLET 77

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Kavango, Namibia. A farmer carrying millet heads to prepare the daily meal. (S.

Appa Rao)

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pearl millet was of almost incalculable value to millions of rural people in

eastern and southern Africa. But over the decades, more and more farmers—

especially in southern Africa—have abandoned it and switched to maize.

There are several reasons for this. For one thing, international research

efforts have made maize more productive than pearl millet; for another,

government incentives have given maize an added financial advantage; and for a

third, easier processing has made maize more convenient to use. The

momentum for change has now gone so far that maize is often pushed into pearl

millet areas to which it is poorly suited and where it cannot perform reliably.

Now, however, a new era may be dawning. Pearl millet is supremely adapted

to heat and aridity and, for all its current decline, seems likely to spring back as

the world gets hotter and drier. Perhaps the best of all ''life-support" grains, pearl

millet thrives where habitats are harsh. Of all the major cereals, it is the one most

able to tolerate extremes of heat and drought. It yields reliably in regions too hot

and too dry to consistently support good yields of maize (or even sorghum).

These happen to be the regions most desperately in need of help. It is there that

the famines of recent decades have brought mass devastation and death. It is there

that expanding deserts are destroying the productivity of perhaps 25 million

hectares every year. And it is there that agricultural development could have its

greatest humanitarian benefits.

These reasons alone should be sufficient to make pearl millet the target of a

global initiative. But this crop has even more promise. Rising climatic

temperatures are starting to concern almost all countries. And water is shaping up

as the most limiting resource for dozens of the world's nations—including some

of the most advanced. Agriculture is usually a country's biggest user of water, so

that crops that sip, rather than gulp, moisture are likely to be in ever greater

demand. Thus, even for economies that until now never heard of it, pearl millet

could quickly become a vital resource.

Agronomically, there is no reason why pearl millet could not (like sorghum)

become used worldwide. Indeed, recent research in the United States is showing

that its prospects are much higher than most people now think. Already, the crop

is showing promise for the heartland of America. It might also become widely

used in the hotter and drier parts of Latin America, Central Asia, and the Middle

East.

It could have a bright future in dry areas of Australia and other countries as

well.

Sorghum also has much promise here. It, too, will grow where it is dry, but is best

when conditions are cool as well. Pearl millet's important characteristic is its concomitant

ability to withstand both heat and low moisture.

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Pearl-millet-growing areas in Africa. There are an estimated 14 million hectares

of millet in this zone, making it the third most widely grown crop in sub-Saharan

Africa. The plant was probably domesticated some 4,000-5,000 years ago along

the southern margins of the central highlands of the Sahara. It has since become

widely distributed across the semiarid tropics of Africa and Asia. Today,

approximately one-third of the world's millet is grown in Africa; about 70

percent of it in West Africa. Africa's major pearl-millet producing countries

include Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal in

the west; Sudan and Uganda in the east. In southern Africa, the

commercialization of agriculture has resulted in maize partially or completely

displacing this traditional food crop. (ICRISAT, 1987; each dot represents

20,000 hectares)

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Pearl millet is easy to grow. It suffers less from diseases than sorghum,

maize, or other grains. Also, it has fewer insect pests.

The widespread impression that pearl millet grain is essentially an animal

feed, unpalatable to all but the desperately hungry, is wrong. The grain is actually a

superior foodstuff, containing at least 9 percent protein and a good balance of

amino acids. It has more oil than maize and is a "high-energy" cereal. It has

neither the tannins nor the other compounds that reduce digestibility in sorghum.

Pearl millet is also a versatile foodstuff. It is used mainly as a whole,

cracked, or ground flour; a dough; or a grain like rice. These are made into

unfermented breads (roti), fermented foods (kisra and gallettes), thin and thick

porridges (toh), steam-cooked dishes (couscous); nonalcoholic beverages, and

snacks.

Grain from certain cultivars is roasted whole and consumed directly. The

staple food of the mountainous regions in Niger is millet flour mixed with dried

dates and dried goat cheese. This nutritious mixture is taken on long journeys

across the Sahara and eaten mixed with water—no cooking required.

Grain from other types is used to make traditional beer. In Nigeria, it is

fermented, like maize or sorghum, to produce ogi—a traditional weaning food

that is still common.

In future, pearl millet may be used in many more types of foods. The fact

that it can be made into products resembling those normally produced from

wheat or rice should make it acceptable to many more people.

With new

technology, there seem to be possibilities of using it even to make raised breads

(see Appendix C).

All this is not to say that pearl millet is perfect. Indeed, the crop has several

serious problems. For one, the raw grain is difficult to process. Many consumers

decorticate (dehull) the grain before grinding it into various particle sizes for use

in different products. Dehulling by traditional hand pounding produces low yields

of flour (around 75 percent) and the product has poor storage stability.

Despite these impediments, this plant's promise is so great that we have

devoted the following two chapters to its various types. The next chapter

highlights its promise for subsistence farmers—the millions in Africa and Asia to

whom pearl millet means life itself. The subsequent chapter highlights

commercial pearl millets—the types that are increasingly grown by farmers who

produce a surplus to sell.

Information H.S.R. Desikachar.

For a probable solution to this problem, see Appendix C. Semi-wet milling and

parboiling are two techniques that have recently been shown capable of overcoming the

storage stability problem. (Information from D.E. Blyth, ICRISAT).

PEARL MILLET 81

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BAJRA

About 3,000 years ago pearl millet crossed the Indian Ocean and

became a vital contributor to South Asia's food supplies. Today it is India's

fourth most important cereal, surpassed only by rice, wheat, and sorghum.

Bajra, as it is called, is currently grown on almost 10 percent of India's

food-grain area, and it yields about 5 percent of the country's cereal food.

Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh account for nearly 80

percent of the 14 million hectares planted and 70 percent of the 5 million

tons of pearl millet grain produced each year.

India's farmers grow some pearl millet under irrigation during the hot,

dry months and routinely reap harvests as high as 3 or 4 tons per hectare.

But most grow it in the arid areas, particularly where the rainfall is just

insufficient for sorghum or maize. Here, the soils are usually depleted in

fertility and there is no irrigation. Some plots receive as little as 150 mm of

rainfall per year. But pearl millet survives and produces food.

Bajra-growing areas in the Subcontinent. (ICRISAT, 1987; each dot represents

20,000 hectares)

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Indian farmer with a sampling of his bajra harvest. (The Rockefeller

Foundation)

Indians commonly grind pearl millet and make the flour into cakes or

unleavened bread (chapati). Some goes into porridges, which may be thin

or thick. Much is cooked like rice. The grain is sometimes parched and

eaten, the product (known as akohi, bhunja, lahi, or phula) being similar to

popcorn. In some regions, the green ears are also roasted and eaten like a

vegetable.

Although small quantities of the grains are used for feeding cattle and

poultry, the plant is more often fed to animals as a green fodder. It is well

suited for this purpose because it is quick-growing, tillers very freely, lends

itself to multiple cutting, and usually has thin and succulent stems.

All in all, pearl millet is not a neglected crop in India. Authorities realize

that it stabilizes the nation's food basket. Improved strains, suited to various

regions, have been created and released for cultivation. Indeed, its

potential is being increasingly exploited, especially as the swelling

population requires increased cultivation of marginal land.

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LET THEM EAT MILLET BREAD

Millet once played a greater role in the world of cereals for many rural

people in eastern and southern Africa, but it has declined in importance

over the last 30-50 years because of a preference for maize.

The decline has been compounded by increased research on maize

leading to greater productivity of the crop and by the incentives given to

maize production through government policies. Maize has been grown, as a

result, in dry conditions to which it is not adapted and it has failed too often

in these conditions. Governments have come to realize this as well as the

farmers themselves.

So it is now necessary to reestablish the importance of millet and

sorghum in these drier areas and to do so we must make the production of

these crops attractive enough so that they can compete with maize, not only

in the worst and most severe droughts but in at least a majority of years.

Here is work for the scientists in millet.

But in the long run, even in Africa, maize is not the problem at all. The

problem is wheat, or more correctly, bread. Politicians are going to give the

people bread. They have been saying this for a long, long time, and they

mean it. Technocrats may decry this trend, particularly in tropical areas

where wheat cannot be grown satisfactorily, but I can assure you that the

protestations will be to little avail. They may slow the process down but they

will not stop it. The people of the cities want bread, and the elected officials

will ensure that they get it. The people are already exposed to bread and

they will ask for it, they will insist upon it, and they will get it.

In many tropical countries it will be very expensive to satisfy this

demand unless millet can become bread. And this, too, the politicians

recognize and they will support this demand whether efforts can be made to

decrease the cost of giving people the food that they demand. So here is

something else for the millet scientists to do. Don't ask me how you do it.

You know far better than I do. I am just telling you it's got to be done.

From an address by L.D. Swindale

Former Director-General, ICRISAT

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NUTRITION

Pearl millet's average composition is given in the tables on the following

pages. Some highlights are summarized below.

Carbohydrates usually make up about 70 percent of the dry grain, and they

consist almost exclusively of starch. The starch itself is composed of about two-

thirds amylopectin (the insoluble component that forms a paste in water at room

temperature) and one-third amylose (the soluble component that forms a gel in

aqueous solution).

Measurements made on several hundred types have shown that the protein

ranges from 9 to 21 percent, with a mean of 16 percent. However, the varieties

now used in farm practice have an average of about II or 12 percent. Of the

different protein types, prolamine constitutes 40 percent and globulins 20

percent; the presence of an albumin has been also reported, but no gluten. The

protein's biological value and digestibility coefficient have been measured as 83

percent and 89 percent, respectively.

The protein efficiency ratio has been found

to be 1.43, which is even better than that of wheat (1.2).

The grain has about 5 percent fat, roughly twice the amount found in the

standard cereals. It is composed of about 75 percent unsaturated and 24 percent

saturated fatty acids.

The vitamin values of pearl millet grain are generally somewhat lower than

those of maize, although the level of vitamin A is quite good. The carotene value

is also good—for a cereal.

Of the grain's edible portion, ash comprises about 3 percent, an amount

somewhat higher than in wheat, rice, or maize. The various mineral constituents,

accordingly, tend to occur in greater quantities as well. Compared with maize,

phosphorus (average 339 mg) is half again as much, iron (average 9.8 mg) is

more than three times, and calcium (average 37 mg) is more than five times as

much. Traces of barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese,

molybdenum, nickel, silver, strontium, tin, titanium, vanadium, zinc, and iodine

have also been noted.

In feeding trials, pearl millet has proved nutritionally superior to rice and

wheat. A review of research in India

states that a diet based on pearl millet and

pulses is somewhat better at promoting human growth than a similar diet based on

wheat. In one trial, for instance, researchers made up vegetarian diets typical of

those eaten by the

These figures were determined by feeding experiments on rats at a 5-percent level of

protein intake (CSIR, 1966).

This was determined at the 10-percent level of protein intake (CSIR, 1966).

The value reported (as vitamin A) is 22 retinol equivalents (RE). which is not

outstanding in itself, but any amount of vitamin A is good for a cereal.

CSIR, 1966.

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Moisture (g) 10 Cystine 1.8

Food energy (Kc) 353 Isoleucine 3.9

Protein (g) 11.8 Leucine 9.5

Carbohydrate (g) 70 Lysine 3.2

Fat (g) 4.8 Methionine 1.8

Fiber (g) 1.9 Phenylalanine 4.1

Ash (g) 2.3 Threonine 3.3

Vitamin A (RE) 22 Tryptophan 1.4

Thiamin (mg) 0.31 Tyrosine 3.0

Riboflavin (mg) 0.19 Valine 4.9

Niacin (mg) 2.6

Calcium (mg) 37

Chloride (mg) 43

Copper (mg) 0.5

Iron (mg)

9.8

Magnesium (mg) 114

Manganese (mg) 0.8

Molybdenum (µg) 190

Phosphorus (mg) 339

Potassium (mg) 418

Sodium (mg) 15

Zinc (mg)

2.0

Values range from 1.0-20.7 mg.

The pearl millet grain is nutritious. It has no husk, no tannin, contains

5-7 percent oil, and has higher protein and energy levels than maize or

sorghum. The unsaturated fatty acids making up the oil are oleic(20-31

percent), linoleic (40-52 percent), and linolenic (2-5 percent). The saturated

fatty acids are palmitic (18-25 percent) and stearic (28 percent).*

In general, pearl millet has a higher protein content than other cereals

grown under similar conditions. In 180 pearl millet lines tested

* Information from L.W. Rooney.

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in 1972, protein contents ranged from 9 to 21 percent with a mean of

16 percent. It has an excellent amino acid profile and, depending on the

variety and perhaps on the growing conditions, the levels of the various

amino acids making up the protein can vary by as much as a factor of two.

In general, however, the reported values show higher tryptophan,

threonine, and valine and lower leucine, but otherwise similar essential

amino acids in pearl millet compared with grain sorghum. What is

uncertain, however, is the digestibility of pearl millet protein. It is possible

that the actual amount of digestible protein is less than that of other major

grains.

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poor. When pearl millet partially or completely replaced rice, the nutritive

value increased appreciably.

Studies conducted on children showed that all the subjects fed diets based on

pearl millet maintained positive balance with respect to nitrogen, calcium, and

phosphorus. The protein's apparent digestibility was about 53 percent, an amount

close to that for finger millet and sorghum proteins, but less than that of rice

protein (65 percent). It was also found that pearl millet could replace 25 percent

of the rice in a child's diet without reducing the amount of nitrogen, calcium, or

phosphorus its body absorbed.

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Name

Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.

Synonyms

Pennisetum typhoides (Burm.f.) Stapf and Hubbard, P. americanum (L.)

Leeke, P. spicatum Roem and Schult.

Common Names

Angola: massango

Arabic: duhun, dukhon

English: pearl millet, bulrush millet, cattail millet, candle millet

Ethiopia: bultuk (Oromo), dagusa (Amharic)

French: mil du Soudan, petite mil, mil

India: bajra, bajri, cumbu, sajje

Kenya: mi/mawele, mwere (Kikuyu)

Mali: sanyò, nyò, gawri

Malawi: machewere (Ngoni), muzundi (Yao), uchewere, nyauti (Tumbuka)

Niger: hegni (Djerma), gaouri (Peul), hatchi (Haussa)

Nigeria: gero (Hausa), dauro, maiwa, emeye (Yoruba)

Shona: mhunga, mhungu

Sotho: nyalothi

Sudan: dukhon

Swahili: uwele, mawele

Swati: ntweka

Zambia: mawele, nyauti, uchewele (Nyanja), bubele, kapelembe, isansa,

mpyoli (Bemba)

Zimbabwe: mhunga (Chewa), u/inyawuthi (Ndebele)

Zulu: amabele, unyaluthi, unyawoti, unyawothi

The widely used name Pennisetum americanum is not taxonomically valid, according

to most (but not all) authorities.

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Description

Pearl millet is an erect annual, usually between 50 cm and 4 m tall. Tillering

and branching are not uncommon and are sometimes profuse. The straw is coarse

and pithy.

The numerous flowers are tucked tightly around a cylindrical spike (rachis)

that can range in length from 15 to 140 cm. This inflorescence is usually greenish

yellow, and it may be cylindrical throughout its length or may taper at one or both

ends.

The flowers can be either cross-pollinated or self-pollinated. The female

part (stigma) emerges before the male part is ready to shed its pollen.

As a

result, cross-pollination normally occurs. However, where the timing overlaps,

some self-pollination can occur.

Grain begins developing as soon as fertilization occurs and is fully

developed 20-30 days later. The whole process, from fertilization to ripening,

takes only about 40 days.

The seeds range in color from white to brown, blue, or almost purple. Most

are slate gray. They are generally tear shaped and smaller than those of wheat.

The average weight is about 8 mg. Some thresh free from glumes, while others

require husking.

The seeds are quick to germinate. If conditions are favorable, they sprout in

about 5 days. Freshly harvested seed may not germinate immediately; however, a

dormancy of several weeks after harvesting has been reported.

Pearl millet is a diploid (2n = 14).

Distribution

The two vast areas of West and East Africa where pearl millet is prominent

have already been mentioned (see page 80).

Soon after its domestication, the crop became widely distributed across the

semiarid tropics of both Africa (15 million hectares) and Asia (14 million

hectares). Pearl millet first became known in Europe about 1566 when plants

were raised in Belgium from seed said to have been received from India. This

form, sometimes known as Pennisetum spicatum, is still grown in Spain and

North Africa. Pearl millet was introduced into the United States at least as long

ago as the 1850s.

Cultivated Varieties

There are vast numbers of types, differentiated by features such as the

following:

The first flush of flowering (the female part) is completed in about 2 days; a day later

the anthers from the male flowers emerge and a second flush of flowering (the one that

produces pollen) continues for a further 2 days. A day or two after that a third flush of

flowering begins. This one is from the female-sterile florets.

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DOUBLE DIP

Pearl millet's extremely deep roots can reach down into soil layers

untapped by other plants. Tests in the southeastern United States have

revealed that it can pull up nutrients from residues that have accumulated

below the root zones of the previous farm crops.

This finding, should it prove more widely true, has profound

implications. Much of the fertilizer now put on crops leaches past their roots

where it is not only lost but becomes a pollutant. Having an annual crop

that can scavenge the lower layers gives farmers a second shot at the

(expensive) fertilizer as well as a tool for cleaning the environment. They

might even make a profit from it by selling the pearl millet.

• Quick maturity (about 80 days), medium maturity (100 days or so), or slow

maturity (180 days or more)

• Height

• Amount of tillering

• Stem thickness and branching

• Leaf size and hairiness

• Seedhead size, shape, and ''tightness"

• Number, length, rigidity, brittleness, and hairiness of bristles

• Size, shape, and color of grain

• The degree to which the glume adheres to the grain.

For pearl millet, the bulk of the systematic breeding has been done in India,

but substantial contributions have also come from several African countries,

France, and the United States. Most yield improvements have resulted from

incorporating genes from African varieties into Indian breeder stocks. However, a

breakthrough came in the late 1950s when plants carrying cytoplasmic male

sterility were discovered. This genetic trait made hybrids a practical possibility.

Today, single-cross pearl-millet hybrids, using male-sterile seed parents, are the

basis of vigorous private and semi-public seed industries, especially in India (see

chapter 6, page 111).

Environmental Requirements

Daylength

Pearl millet is usually a short-day plant (see next chapter), but some varieties

are daylength neutral.

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Rainfall

Although the crop is grown where rainfall ranges from 200 to 1,500 mm,

most occurs in areas receiving 250-700 mm. The lowest rainfall areas rely mainly

on early-maturing cultivars. Although very drought resistant,

pearl millet

requires its rainfall to be evenly distributed during the growing season. (Unlike

sorghum, it cannot retreat into dormancy during droughts.) On the other hand, too

much rain at flowering can also cause a crop failure.

Altitude

Pearl millet is seldom found above 1,200 m in Africa, but occurs at much

higher altitudes elsewhere (for instance, in western North America).

Low Temperature

The plant is generally sensitive to low temperatures at the seedling stage and

at flowering.

High Temperature

High daytime temperatures are needed for the grain to mature. In Africa's

pearl millet zone, temperatures are typically above 30°C.

Soil Type

Like most plants, pearl millet does best in light, well-drained loams. It

performs poorly in clay soils and cannot tolerate waterlogging. It is tolerant of

subsoils that are acid (even those as low as pH 4-5) and high in aluminum

content.

Related Species

Pearl millet has many relatives. A number are quite troublesome. In much of

Africa, for instance, wild Pennisetum species manage to get their pollen in, and

this cross-pollination quickly reduces the crop's productive capacity. The hybrid

swarms of weedy "half-breeds" (called shibras in West Africa) are common

contaminants in the farmer's crop. Whereas the cultivated races have broad-tipped

persistent spikelets and large, mostly protruding grains, the wild species have

narrower, pointed spikelets. Also, their grains are smaller, entirely enclosed by

husks, and prone to fall out (shatter). Luckily, the weedy species did not

accompany the crop to India.

Although hybridization and introgression between the crop plants and the

wild relatives is a problem for farmers, it can be a blessing for plant breeders,

giving rise to new forms both of the crop and of the weed. (see page 121).

The northern limit of sorghum in West Africa is around the 375-mm isohyet; that of

pearl millet is further north—around the 250-mm isohyet. The crop's drought resistance

comes from its rapid growth, short life cycle, high temperature tolerance and

developmental plasticity.

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Pearl Millet: Subsistence Types

Pearl millet is the staple of what is perhaps the harshest of the world's major

farming areas: the arid and semiarid region stretching over 7,000 km from

Senegal to Somalia (almost one-sixth of the way around the globe at that

latitude). There, on the hot, dry, sandy soils, farmers produce some 40 percent of

the world's pearl millet grain.

How to help these farmers—who live in the often drought-devastated zone

on the edge of the world's biggest desert and who have no access to irrigation,

fertilizer, pesticides, or other purchased inputs—is perhaps the greatest

agricultural challenge facing the world. The answer may lie in their age-old

staple, pearl millet.

Indeed, there is probably no better cereal to relieve the underlying threat of

starvation in the Sahel, the Sudan, Somalia, and the other drylands surrounding

the Sahara. Millions entrust their lives to this single species every day, and, of all

the peoples on the planet, they are the ones most needing help. Yet, at the

moment, pearl millet suffers from neglect and misunderstanding—in part because

the crop grows in some of the poorest countries and regions and in some of the

least hospitable habitats for humans (including research workers). People have

thus unjustly stigmatized it as a poor crop, fit only for interim support while

something better is located.

This chapter's purpose is to counter that misguided notion.

SUBSISTENCE MILLETS

Most pearl millets grown in Africa are necessarily oriented toward survival

under harsh conditions rather than high yields.

For want of a better name, we

have called them "subsistence types."

To any outsider used to the robust look of wheat, rice, or maize, subsistence

pearl millets may seem puny, unproductive, and downright unworthy of

consideration. To an agronomist or cereal breeder, they

The next chapter discusses pearl millet varieties that are adapted to commercial

production and more salubrious sites. They tend to be productivity oriented.

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FARMING ON THE FRINGE

Pearl millet is the last cereal crop of arable farming on the edge of the

desert—beyond it there is only pasturing and open grazing. There is not a

more drought-tolerant cereal crop to relieve the threat of starvation. When it

fails, nothing else can be substituted. Thus, millions are forced to entrust

their lives to this plant. It is not an easy bargain to make.

Most of Africa's pearl millet is grown where the danger of drought is

ever present; where the landscape abruptly changes between the wet and

dry seasons; where the rains are sometimes limited to only a month or two

or three; and where utter aridity prevails the rest of the time.

It seems a cruel irony that the most destitute of people are forced to

depend upon foods that they must produce for themselves in the harshest

lands. But pearl millet has "rusticité," a French term implying that it will

produce something no matter what. Droughts, floods, locusts, diseases, and

other hazards may hurt, but the plant produces food nonetheless. All other

grains, on the other hand, are more vulnerable and more subject to

complete collapse. It is remarkable that any crop can cope with the sites

where pearl millet is grown. Local cloudbursts can dump the year's

precipitation in a few hours. On crusted and hard soils, such deluges result

in massive rushing runoff, heavy erosion, and the nearly complete loss of

desperately needed moisture. Early season rains are preceded by severe

dust storms that damage, bury, and desiccate tender emerging seedlings.

Scorching heat can kill an entire crop before it becomes established.

Because of problems like these, the threat of crop failure is

omnipresent. Farmers must repeat their sowings, often two or three times.

Most sow more area—and in widely separated sites-than they anticipate

getting a harvest from. During the planting period they may scatter seeds

continually wherever their herds trample the soil, and thereby give the

seeds a chance to survive. To farmers elsewhere, tossing a few seeds in

cow tracks may seem futile, but to those of the Sahel it can mean life itself.

The pain of growing crops on the desert fringe. Pearl millet underpins millions of

desperate lives, including this Fulani farmer in Niger. "I will not plant again," he told the

photographer after a rainstorm flattened his seventh millet planting that year. Even his

resilient subsistence-type pearl millet has succumbed. Most plantings in this region are

lost to drought or sandstorm; this one, ironically, to a flash flood. (Steve McCurry)

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look particularly terrible. The plants perform poorly even when they are

unstressed. They are tall and top-heavy; they are generally photosensitive; they

exhibit low rates of fertilizer response; they have low harvest indexes; and they

are localized in adaptation so that even the best of them cannot be easily moved

around for use in other places. Above all, they are low yielding—averaging only

around 500 kg per hectare.

In reality, though, subsistence pearl millets are some of the most remarkable

food plants to be found anywhere. In the area of West Africa where pearl millet is

paramount, the droughts can be fierce, the heat searing, and the rainstorms

terrible. The sandstorms are even worse. Early in the growing season, the ever-

present winds increase in intensity and often swirl the soil so powerfully that it

literally sandblasts the tender seedlings. Then, heated by the Sahara sun, the

new-blown sand may "cook" the seedlings before they can grow tall enough to

shade and cool the land around their roots. Finally, as the soil dries out, its

surface often hardens into a crust so impenetrable that any surviving seeds cannot

break through.

Because of conditions like these, crop failure is omnipresent and Sahelian

farmers must repeat their sowings, often several times. But of all food crops,

subsistence pearl millets tend to survive best—they sometimes survive even in

bare Sahara sand dunes.

They are cereals for "base-line food security" and give

the farmer the best chance of staying alive.

By and large, subsistence pearl millets can:

• Germinate at high soil temperatures;

• Germinate in crusted soil;

• Tolerate some sand blasting in the seedling stage;

• Yield grain at low levels of soil fertility;

• Resist downy mildew;

• Tolerate stem borer and head caterpillar; and

• Hold up reasonably well against the parasitic weed striga.

Few of the scientists' varieties could be relied upon to produce food under

conditions of such uncompromising hostility.

Some of the "faults" perceived by

outsiders are actually of great local importance, as the following examples show.

They are also found in bare dunes elsewhere: on the coastal plain of Yemen, for

instance. Information from M.W. Brown.

A reviewer from a large research facility in West Africa sent us the following

comment: "The fact is, that after 40 years of [pearl] millet breeding, only one 'improved'

line—CIVT—consistently surpasses (but not by much) local cultivars. Breeders' varieties

routinely underperform local cultivars, even in on-station trials."

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Northern Namibia. An Owambo farmer in front of his harvest holding large, compact heads he has selected for seed to sow

next season. (S. Appa Rao)

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Late Maturation

Elsewhere in the world, plant breeders have tried to speed up their cereals

—to make them mature quickly so that more than one crop can be grown per

year; so that weeds, pests, and diseases have less chance of causing destruction;

and so that food can be produced where growing seasons are short. This is one

reason why subsistence pearl millets look bad: many tend to mature very slowly.

The long growing season certainly leads to problems. Since flowering

generally takes place after the rains end, even a brief early drought can hit the

plants before there is any chance of forming seed and thereby bringing on total

crop failure.

However, to Sahelian farmers the delay is all important. They want the

grains to ripen after the rains have ceased. Although agronomically inefficient, it

eliminates many drying and storage problems. (The grains can be easily dried,

and they do not grow molds.) It probably also reduces problems caused by grain

diseases and insects, both of which need moisture to thrive.

For the same reason, some subsistence pearl millets are "open-headed."

This, too, is inefficient, and plant breeders elsewhere try to replace loose

seedheads with compact ones. For the farmer in much of Africa, however, the

open form eliminates many of the drying and storage problems encountered with

tight-headed varieties.

The long vegetative growth phase is probably also a major adaptive

advantage in this region where the soils are lacking in both moisture and fertility:

it gives the roots a chance to explore larger soil volumes. For one thing, this

probably contributes to the plant's drought tolerance. For another, it probably

helps the plant amass the nutrients necessary to grow a good head of grain. This

may take considerable time, because roots grow slowly and because in those

depleted soils the release of any remaining mineral nutrients is itself often slow.

A related, subtle feature is that the traditional crop varieties usually mature

at the same time. This means that only one generation of birds, insects, and

diseases gets a chance to attack the flowers and seeds. Adding a mixture of types

that mature successively is a disaster: it provides a "rolling nursery" that builds up

multiple generations of pests and diseases that then wipe out all late-maturing

types.

Daylength Sensitivity

Many of the world's wild plants (as well as most traditional landraces) are

sensitive to the length of day. Modern plant breeders try to eliminate this

restrictive trait so the plants they produce can be grown in different latitudes and

seasons. But, for the subsistence pearl millets of West Africa, daylength

sensitivity is what ensures that grain will

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be ready to harvest just at the right time in the dry season. It is the length of day

that triggers the plant to flower, not the age of the plants. The yield may be poor

if the season has been difficult, but the plant will at least flower and mature

whatever grain it can.

By-Products

Traditional rustic varieties tend to be big, tall, leafy plants that perform best

when spaced far apart. While these varieties produce massive amounts of

greenery (6-12 tons per hectare even under the prevailing circumstances), the

harvest index is often less than 20 percent. This means that less than 20 percent

of the plant (above ground) is grain and more than 80 percent is stalk and leaves,

as compared to 30 percent or more for improved high-yield-potential varieties.

But farmers who must produce almost every necessity right on their own

land look at these cereals in totality. To them, there is no such thing as excessive

stalk. For anyone who cannot buy fencing, roofing, or fuel, stalks are as valuable

as grains. And for those who have a cow or some goats, the leaves are what keep

the animals alive during the dry season.

Consumer Preferences

To a subsistence pearl-millet farmer, the kernel characteristics—shape,

color, processing qualities, and endosperm texture—can be more important than

the absolute yield. A grain is almost worthless if it doesn't have the right (and

often very subtle) properties for the type of foods the family eats. Subsistence

growers choose among the varieties mainly on grounds of suitability for preparing

such dishes as:

• Toh. The principal food, served at least once a day in the northern Sahel,

toh is a stiff porridge prepared by adding pearl millet to boiling water

while stirring.

• Koko. This is prepared by mixing pearl millet flour with water into a fine

paste, which is then put aside in a warm place for a day or two to ferment.

The resulting sourdough is then dropped into boiling water to form a thin

porridge of creamy consistency.

• Marsa. This favorite snack of Ghanaians is a deep-fried pancake, prepared

from the leavened batter of pearl-millet flour.

This feature is restricted neither to Africa nor to this crop. Even today in parts of

Turkey and Syria wheat straw sells for more per kilo than wheat grain (and wheat, of

course, is a high-priced crop). Information from J. Harlan.

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Genetic Diversity

Pearl millets grown under truly marginal conditions are usually

heterogeneous enough to ensure stable production over seasons with widely

differing weather patterns. In a sense, the African farmers for centuries have been

performing ''population breeding," a technique that is only now becoming

popular in science. With this technique, a cluster of genotypes acts as a "cohort"

able (collectively) to make the best of varying conditions. The genetically

different plants in the "swarm" help create a successful harvest, no matter what

hazards the season may bring. Should one type be depressed by weather, pests,

disease, or mismanagement, others carry the brunt.

Advancing the qualities of a plant along a broad genetic front helps ensure a

reliable—although not maximum—yield. And when your life depends on what

you can grow, reliability is the most fundamental need.

WHAT TO DO?

Supporting greater production of subsistence pearl millets is one of the

world's most humane endeavors. But improving the plants in this case is probably

of secondary importance. Given the already remarkable qualities of these time-

tested survival crops, given the infertile soils and harsh climates, and given the

resources at the farmer's disposal, it would be difficult to come up with a better

plant than he has already.

More important is research to make the farming methods easier, more

reliable, and more effective; research to make storing and handling the harvest

better and safer; and research to ease the daily drudgery of processing the raw

grain into edible forms.

This book is of course designed to highlight promising plants rather than

farming, storage, or processing methods. However, during the course of this study

we came across some innovative ideas that may help boost the performance and

reliability of subsistence pearl millets. We mention them here briefly. In the

appendixes can be found ideas on potential breakthroughs in pest control, grain

storage, milling, and other pertinent aspects.

REDUCING VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE

Helping farmers to deal with the uncertainties of the early rains—not to

mention the droughts, sandstorms, and high soil temperatures—are perhaps the

most valuable interventions that can be made. These

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THE DUAL TRACK

In this report we have given equal weight to species for both

subsistence and commercial production. This is certainly an uncommon

approach: in recent years polarization and even rancor have prevailed

between the proponents of each viewpoint. However, in a broad sense,

subsistence and commercial farming, although separate, are parallel and

equally worthy—a fact not widely recognized by the public and one that

sometimes befuddles even the best-intentioned scientific minds.

Subsistence farming is vital to the lives of millions, of course, and

strengthening it is perhaps the most humanitarian contribution that can be

made to African agriculture. But it is often operationally impossible to reach

the neediest in the way they want. To create a new variety—even of a

well-understood crop such as wheat—can easily take a decade of

dedication and perhaps a million in money. It is therefore clearly impractical

to reach, individually, the thousands of subsistence regions, each with its

likes and dislikes, needs and desires, climates and conditions.

Although technical farming is not inimical to traditional farming, it is

often much criticized by those most motivated to helping the neediest

farmers. Everybody wants to help the most poverty stricken, of course.

However, there is probably not a single subsistence farmer who doesn't

dream of producing a surplus for sale. And that surplus is much more than a

way to pay for a daughter's dowry or a transistor radio; it is, after all, the

way out of poverty.

For this reason, then, those who are developing modern cultivars and

hybrids for use in even the poorest nations are not wrongheaded or

misguided. Subsistence farmers may be in the overwhelming majority, but

the other farmers are the ones who, producing more than they can eat, feed

the nonfarming public—the city dwellers, businessmen, doctors, teachers,

tourists, and, yes, even the visiting researchers. Nor is there any reason to

deny subsistence farmers a route to prosperity by withholding from them the

means for producing commercially desirable varieties. Any nation, to survive

and prosper, must help its farmers feed more than themselves.

Commercial farming has different requirements and goals from

subsistence farming, but it poses no threat. This can be seen in many parts

of the world. Throughout the Middle East, for example, farmers grow rustic

and advanced wheats side by side—one for family use, the other for

market day. Also, in the highlands of

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Peru, Indians commonly grow traditional potatoes for themselves and

modern potatoes for the cities.

Some have pointed out that the Green Revolution wheats in India and

Pakistan were grown largely for sale. They conclude (rightly or wrongly)

that commerce was the main motivation and that no quantum leap in food

production can occur in Africa until similar commercial opportunities are

available. Thus, despite the current polarized approaches, subsistence

farming and commercial farming in the Third World are inextricably linked.

Improvements in one can benefit the other.

Traditional Farmers Are Superb, But . . .

Subsistence farmers are to be admired and even emulated. Their

techniques have been honed in the uncompromising harshness of an

unforgiving climate as well as in the ever-present knowledge that failure

means hunger or even death. However, no one should get carried away

with the romantic notion that peasants always know best.

In the 1860s, when the United States proposed putting an agricultural

university in every state, there was much opposition and many claims that

American farmers needed no technical help—that professors in universities

could not possibly teach the people of the soil how to farm better. But it

proved otherwise—the so-called "land grant colleges" provided the engine

of basic knowledge that has driven U.S. agriculture to its current heights.

It was through those universities and similar research facilities that the

life cycles of many farm pests were worked out, the effects of fertilizer

demonstrated, crop genetics illuminated, soil types and soil micronutrients

identified, and myriad other basic facts underlying any farming operation

brought to light. With this knowledge, even the most stubborn traditionalists

were able to coax more from their land, with less effort and more

consistency.

All in all, there are many ways in which a basic biological understanding

can benefit the subsistence farmers of the hungry nations. Even the best of

those farmers can, in this way, be helped to grow their crops more easily,

more reliably, and with higher returns.

In the past, scientific findings were applied mostly to commercial

agriculture, but that was because larger scale farmers are usually easier to

reach and more susceptible to change. Knowledge is not detrimental to

subsistence farming, and the polarization that now pervades rhetoric and

thinking worldwide is deplorable.

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would provide more secure environments early in the planting season and

would do much to reduce a farmer's vulnerability to total crop failure before the

crop is even started. Following are six possibilities.

Tillering

The pearl millets grown in the Sahel tend to be nontillering—each seed puts

up only a single stem. This adds a major vulnerability because if that stem dies in a

drought or sandstorm, for example, the plant is lost.

But certain pearl millets put up as many as five heads—not all of them at

once. In this case, then, the destruction of a stem still leaves the plant alive and

with a chance to rebound.

Other things being equal, adding some tillering types would dramatically

reduce the severity of crop losses in the bad years and it would reduce the need to

replant damaged fields. And in the good years when the rains are plentiful and

timely, two or three (or perhaps more) stems would all emerge and survive,

thereby doubling or tripling the yield.

Deep Planting

In the United States, researchers are studying how different types of pearl

millet perform while in the seedling stage. They have found that the seedlings

show large differences in the length and in the speed with which they lengthen.

By selecting types that produce tall seedlings and rapid elongation they have been

able to plant the crop as deep as 10 cm.

This gives the newly germinated and

highly vulnerable seedling a better chance at surviving: it can reach deeper

moisture; it is less likely to be killed if the soil surface dries out; and, if it is a fast

grower, it can perhaps get through to the air before the soil crusts over.

Although the tests were done in germinators and greenhouses in the United

States, they successfully identified lines possessing improved stand-

establishment capabilities of high potential value for the subsistence farmers

facing the elements a world away.

Water Harvesting

There are many possible ways to help concentrate moisture at the base of

seedlings. A companion report identifies a considerable number.

That these are

likely to have significant value is suggested

This work has been spearheaded by W.D. Stegmeier.

Highly significant differences in elongation of mesocotyl (MC) and coleoptile (CL)

organs were found among 1,100 entries germinated at 30°C with MC and CL lengths

ranging from 14 to 130 mm and 6 to 40 mm, respectively.

More Water for Arid Lands. For a list of BOSTID reports, see page 377.

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by a recent paper on the use of soil imprinting and tied ridges.

Both techniques

produce little "basins" around the plants where water collects.

In the trials (conducted in an area of West Africa where annual rainfall is

600-900 mm), tied ridges captured 85-100 percent of the rainfall received on the

site during the season. Normal ridging or flat planting captured only 55-80

percent—the rest was lost as runoff. Tied ridging also reduced the soil's surface

bulk density, maintained soil fertility (by reducing losses of soil nutrients), and

improved the soil's water-holding capacity. In the case of the pearl millet crop,

tied ridging increased the depth of rooting, the root density, the vegetative

growth, and the yields—and it did it in both wet and dry years.

Transplanting

The use of nurseries is one of the oldest strategies to avoid water stress in the

seedling stage. For centuries, Asians have transplanted rice seedlings and West

Africans have transplanted sorghum seedlings (see page 184). Now farmers in

parts of Asia are transplanting maize in the same way. Direct sowing is of course

much easier, but wherever catastrophic failure is a probability, transplanting

provides added security.

In this process, the seeds are planted not in the fields, but in small irrigated

nurseries; they are taken to the fields only after the rains have commenced in

earnest. This technique seems particularly promising with subsistence pearl

millet (not to mention other crops in this book) because the crop must be

established during the least favorable season, the time available is often short, the

water supply limited, and the weather unpredictable. On top of all that, the farmer

feels pressure to plant early because the family needs food and because the

growing season is all too brief.

Transplanting not only overcomes the hazards of the unreliable early rains,

but compared with a seeded crop, the transplanted crop is in the field for a much

shorter time. It also needs far less water for an equivalent yield, and its resistance

to the elements is greater. Growing

N.R. Hulugalle. 1990. Alleviation of soil constraints to crop growth in the upland

alfisols and associated soil groups of the West African Sudan savannah by tied ridges. Soil

and Tillage Research (Netherlands) 18(2-3):231-247.

Vietnam, long familiar with transplanting rice, pioneered the technique with maize in

tropical conditions. Today, the cultivation of transplanted maize is widespread in the Red

River Delta. The technique has boosted the maize crop from 50,000 hectares a year in

1983-1986 to almost 250,000 hectares in 1990. North Korea also uses transplanted maize

these days. In fact, it has been said that without transplanting, the area under maize would

probably never have exceeded 350,000 hectares, whereas today it covers about 700,000

hectares.

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the seedlings in a nursery also allows the farmer to cull diseased plants and

thereby reduce the intensity of infection.

Although transplanting is so far associated mainly with other crops, there

seems to be no reason why it couldn't prove most beneficial with subsistence

pearl millets. Indeed, in a few parts of India and Africa this is already practiced,

and with considerable success.

Mulching

As we have noted, burning-hot soil is one of the major hazards to the newly

planted subsistence millets. Anything that could cool the surface of the land

would help. Apparently, little or no innovation has yet been applied to this

problem, although some tests using shade have resulted in a tenfold increase in

survival and yield.

Windbreaks

The "sand-blasting" effect can surely be overcome by various kinds of

barriers around (or at least on the windward sides of) the fields. One suggestion is

the use of vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) hedges. This tall, extremely rugged

grass would probably be unaffected by the blasting sand as its stems are enclosed

in tough sheaths. When the time for planting crops arrives—even at the end of the

driest of seasons—this perennial should still be standing stiff and straight and

able to battle the wind.

IMPROVING CROP MANAGEMENT

Ideas on helping subsistence farmers handle their crops with less work or

higher returns can be found in various books, journals, research-station reports,

and PVO newsletters, for example. We have included a few ideas in the

appendixes to this volume. It is thus not our intention here to belabor such fairly

well-recognized issues as the use of fertilizers, optimum levels of tillage, optimum

crop population size, and the use of less-laborious cultivation practices such as

hoes, plows, and draft animals.

There are, however, some promising lines of research that fit in with the

spirit of innovation that lies at the heart of this book. Following are three

examples.

Information from J.H. Williams, who wrote to us saying: "As a point of interest my

personal research has shown that millet growth varied tenfold as a result of manipulation

of soil surface temperature by 6°C (I used shading techniques), but the same manipulation

allowed maize to grow in 40°C air temperatures as well!"

More information on this most interesting grass can be found in the companion

volume Vetiver: a Thin Green Line Against Erosion. For a list of BOSTID reports, see

page 377.

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Cropping Systems

Subsistence pearl millets are essential components of traditional agricultural

systems. They are usually intercropped with cereals such as sorghum and maize

or with legumes such as cowpea or peanut. To most farmers, the combined

production is more important than the yield from either crop by itself. This mixed

cropping is difficult for today's researchers to deal with, but there are some

interesting developments. One is dwarfing.

To reduce the size of a cereal plant is a common strategy (see next chapter).

It provides a compact plant that is more resilient, easier to handle, and higher

yielding. In the case of subsistence pearl millets, however, dwarfing is done not

for such a yield advantage. Researchers have found that simply reducing the

plant height can contribute greatly to the associated cowpea and other low-

growing legumes.

The millet no longer shades its shorter companion, which,

with the increased photosynthesis, results in better yields. Initial results in Niger

are quite encouraging. Farmers there have adopted dwarf millets eagerly.

Building Tilth

The soil under subsistence pearl millet is usually coarse textured, containing

at least 65 percent sand. Such porous sites are not only poor in fertility, they are

very poor at holding water. Any rain that does fall tends to drain away below the

reach of the roots. Ways to keep it in the root zone would bring marked benefits,

both in the crop's yield and its reliability.

It has been found, for example, that leaving crop residues in the field

dramatically raises pearl millet yields in West Africa's deteriorating semiarid

areas. In three recent trials, grain yields rose by 300, 450, and 550 percent,

respectively. The residues not only increased the sandy soil's moisture-holding

capacity, they also lowered soil temperatures and boosted fertility.

Biological Fertilization

The areas where subsistence pearl millet is prevalent are usually so remote

and so poverty stricken that despite the soil's barrenness commercial fertilizer can

seldom, if ever, be used. But all plants, even those as robust as subsistence pearl

millets, need food in the form of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and a few so-

called "micronutrients." How to provide plant foods under subsistence conditions

is one of the

Reddy et al., 1990.

INTSORMIL Bulletin, 1990.

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PEARL MILLET HELPS NAMIBIA

Namibia's farming lands are among the driest and most unpredictable

to be found. Perhaps for that reason, its farmers rely on mahangu (pearl

millet) to provide the basic foods to keep their families fed. In the north of

the country, where two-thirds of the population live, it is the staple.

In the past, Namibia's farmers could hope to obtain only about 300 kg

of grain per hectare—a pitifully small amount. Indeed, production was so low

that the country had to import maize to feed its people.

In 1986, however, the country asked ICRISAT for help, and 50 highly

productive varieties were brought in and planted out for testing. In March

1987, at the new nation's first "Farmers' Field Day," approximately 100

farmers came to see the results. The variety Okashana 1 proved particularly

impressive even though the rainfall that season had been only 170 mm (but

well distributed). Namibia then requested 200 kg of Okashana 1 seed for

multiplication, large-scale testing, and demonstration to farmers. At the

March 1988 Farmers' Field Day, 250 visitors showed up to buy Okashana

seed. A year later, more than 500 farmers came, and they bought about 4

tons of the seed.

Since this new variety's arrival, Namibia's farmers have reaped bumper

harvests. Even using traditional cultivation practices, they doubled their

yields. But those who employed better methods obtained yields of 2.4 tons

per hectare, about eight times the traditional amount.

Okashana 1 results from intensive plant breeding at ICRISAT, but it

still retains its rustic resilience and is especially suited to subsistence

farmers' needs. Among its characteristics are high grain yield, large seed

size, early maturity, resistance to downy mildew, and ability to mature grain

even when end-of-season droughts rob the plants of moisture.

According to Wolfgang Lechner, of the Mahanene Research Station at

Oshkati, more than half of Namibia's pearl-millet farmers now grow the new

variety. "Okashana 1 gives a light-colored flour that is highly acceptable,"

Lechner explains. "With this and the increased yields, within a couple of

years the country may not have to rely on maize imports any more. That

will save us a lot of valuable foreign exchange.''

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greatest of all agronomic challenges—not just for Africa and not just for

pearl millet.

In certain places, deposits of rock phosphate have been located. This almost

insoluble phosphorus-containing mineral has seldom been tapped for fertilizer in

the past. But it is potentially a major source of phosphate for regions in

extremity. Unlike standard soluble fertilizers, it doesn't provide an instant jolt of

good nutrition, but it is nonetheless a most valuable source of a prime nutrient

that plants need to remain healthy, robust, and high yielding. Certain parts of

West Africa have deposits of rock phosphate that could be tapped for this

purpose.

For providing nitrogen to a subsistence farmer's crops, probably nothing is

more practical than biological sources. Nitrogen can be obtained in this way by:

• Incorporating crop residues or animal manures into the soil;

• Using leguminous food plants (such as cowpea or peanuts) in crop

rotations;

• Intercropping with herbaceous soil-building legumes such as stylosanthes

or macroptilium; or

• Incorporating nitrogen-fixing tree species such as Acacia albida into the

fields.

With pearl millet there is also the potential to get nitrogen directly from a

beneficial microorganism that can live on its roots. Such nitrogen-fixing

symbioses between a plant and a microbe are characteristic of many legumes, but

of only a few grasses. Pearl millet is one of those few. It benefits from a

nitrogen-fixing bacterium called azospirillum. Recent trials in Maharashtra,

India, have shown that when pearl millet plants were inoculated with

azospirillum, the yield of both grain and fodder was significantly increased.

This very interesting African tree, which can add nitrogen to the cropping system and

also provide important windbreak effects, is described in the companion report Tropical

Legumnes. For a list of BOSTID reports, see page 377.

A.S. Jadhav, A.A. Shaikh, A.B. Shinde, and G. Harinarayana. 1990. Effects of growth

hormones, biofertilizer and micronutrients on the yield of pearl millet. Journal of

Maharashtra Agricultural Universities 15(2): 159-161.

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Pearl Millet: Commercial Types

Although it is one of the best means for sustaining life in the most desolate

and difficult parts of the farming world, pearl millet also grows well under

pampered conditions—under irrigation and in equable climes, for example.

Because this fact is not widely known, most people dismiss pearl millet as a crop

for good lands, pointing out that its low yield, low harvest index, and generally

low fertilizer response mean that it cannot match the better known cereals under

high-tech management.

However, it is far too early to dismiss pearl millet as a crop for regions that

now grow modern maize and wheat and rice. The plant, as we have said earlier,

has remarkable qualities, and some of its environmental resilience happens to be

of the type that Latin America, North America, Australia, Europe, and others may

soon need desperately. Moreover, pearl millet is no longer a rustic relic. Hybrids

and other advanced forms are coming available for worldwide use. The old

impressions no longer hold.

In fact, a new vision of this ancient crop's potential is becoming clearer from

research in the United States, where pearl millet is already exciting increasing

interest (see box, page 114). Indeed, fast-maturing types that ripen grain in as few

as 90 days after planting and can be harvested by giant combines are now viewed

as important resources for a vast belt spanning the nation from the Carolinas to

Colorado.

This recognition is starting a new era in pearl millet production. For almost

the first time the crop is being seriously investigated with sophisticated methods

in the world's finest research facilities. Male-sterile forms, dwarfs, hybrids, and

even some very unusual hybrids that produce fertile seed, have all recently been

created. So far (at least in the United States), the emphasis has been on producing

pearl millet as a feed grain—and with excellent reason: in U.S. Department of

Agriculture trials, beef cattle, young pigs, and poultry fed pearl millet grain have

grown as well as (or better than) those eating maize (see box).

More and more, however, America's pearl millet proponents are

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realizing that they have in their hands a potential new food grain for the nation

and for the world.

There are good reasons for that assumption. Despite the current widespread

notion that pearl millet is a second-rate cereal, the plant actually has a high

potential growth rate—higher even than sorghum. Like maize and sorghum, it has

the super-efficient C

photosynthesis. Some types mature very fast and can

produce two or even three generations a year if conditions permit. And there are

other advantages as well. Pearl millet is, for example, "a plant-breeder's dream"

and can be developed quickly into numerous and widely different forms (see

box, page 122). It is a cross-pollinating species on which several different

breeding methods can be successfully employed. And, by a strange twist of

genetic luck, it can also be easily inbred.

In terms of large-scale commercial production, therefore, this crop is poised

for revolutionary advances. It stands at about the point maize did in the 1930s.

Hybrids are known but are not in widespread use; yields are only a fraction of

what they might be; and although the basic understanding of the crop's

physiology and genetics is still rudimentary, it is beginning to become clear.

Seizing the opportunity now could propel pearl millet (like maize since the

1930s) to far higher levels of productivity by using the best of modern

techniques. Indeed, pearl millet might well result in a similar leap in food

production in many new areas.

Reasons for thinking this are not hard to find. The world's drylands are faced

with an increasingly serious food crisis. Already this is becoming clear in the

Middle East. For example, in 1989 Syria's parliamentary speaker announced at a

meeting called to discuss Arab development and population problems that, unless

the Arab world produces more food, one-third of its people will face starvation.

In such places the world's most drought- and heat-tolerant cereal obviously has

vital promise.

All in all, then, this plant's adaptability to both good and bad conditions

makes it a potentially outstanding food crop for vast areas of a "greenhouse-

afflicted" world where climates may change wildly from decade to decade or

even from year to year, and where more and more people must obtain food from

hot, dry soils.

The chances for boosting pearl millet's productivity and usefulness are

good, but the improvements may not come rapidly. To make the

The increase in food supplies resulting from the creation of hybrid maize is considered

to be a triumph second only to that of the Green Revolution (based on wheat and rice) in

Asia in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Danger is moving fast and if we do not . . . face it seriously and sincerely we will

never be able to overcome the crisis," said Speaker Abdel-Qader Qaddoura, who noted

that Arab food consumption was increasing by 7 percent per year, while production was

increasing by only a little over 2 percent.

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crop a modern and globally useful food resource, varieties with large, dense,

spherical, light-colored kernels that taste good are needed. In addition, improved

dehulling characteristics are vital if pearl millet is going to be employed in human

foods on a truly wide scale.

Eventually, all of these and more seem likely to come about, as can be seen

from the following promising lines of development.

HIGH-GRAIN TYPES

The worldwide cereal-breeding advances of the last 100 years have

increased rice, wheat, and maize yields dramatically, but, contrary to popular

perception, the plants still produce about the same amount of growth (that is,

their overall dry matter is largely unchanged). Yields have risen because the

plants were reconfigured to reduce the proportion of stems and leaves and

increase the proportion of seeds. Usually, this meant reducing the plant height,

but sometimes it also meant increasing the number of seedheads per plant.

Such rearranged plants have been the key to the remarkable jump in cereal

yields that have occurred in most parts of the world. They respond well to good

management; they make it possible to use fertilizer and other inputs profitably;

and they create an upward spiral of yield and income that goes far beyond food

production alone. For example, they help farmers to rest part of their land to

restore its physical condition and fertility.

As of now, however, Africa's pearl millets are not of the rearranged type.

After centuries of trying to stretch their heads above the rampant weeds, they are

too tall for maximum grain production. In creating excess stalk, they are

consuming energy and moisture that could be used to develop more grain.

Also,

they cannot fully enjoy the benefits of fertilizer because it makes the plants top-

heavy so that rain or wind can easily topple them into the dirt. Paradoxically,

more fertilizer can mean less yield.

This was the situation of Mexico's wheats before the 1950s when genes

from Japanese dwarf varieties helped create short, strong-stemmed plants that

could hold their heavy heads up during lashing winds and pounding storms.

Strengthening the plant's architecture allowed fertilizer to work to the fullest

benefit and was a prime component of the wheats that generated the Green

Revolution.

A similar transformation is now occurring with pearl millet. Strong-stemmed

dwarf types are being put to use for the first time. Such types have already been

developed in the United States, for example. Yields of 4,480 kg per hectare have

been achieved on research stations, and demonstration plots on farms in 1991

yielded 3,024 kg per hectare.

We are of course focusing here on the interests of the farmer whose main goal is to

produce grain. For many subsistence farmers, the stalk is also an important resource.

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MILLET IN THE USA

Although pearl millet has long been grown in the United States, few

Americans have ever heard of it. That may soon change, however. A

number of pioneering researchers see this crop as a valuable grain for the

nation. High-yielding cultivars are being selected and bred; even hybrids

have been created (see page 119). However, owing to an oversupply of

food, pearl millet is currently being developed mainly as a way to feed

animals. Recent results have indicated that it has exceptional promise for

the American livestock industry.

Part of the research has been done in Nebraska and Kansas, where

the plant's tolerance of drought and acid soils, its resistance to pests, as

well as its low requirements for nitrogen fertilizer, make it a potential boon to

farmers. The experiments showed the plant could fit into multiple cropping

systems for the Great Plains region.

Pearl millet might be used as a quality-protein grain for many

livestock-feeding purposes. Compared with maize, it had higher crude

protein and ether-extract concentrations, as well as higher concentrations

of all essential amino acids. Already, it is showing promise for feeding both

poultry and cattle.

Poultry

Trials in different parts of Georgia have shown that pearl millet grain

can fully replace maize in chick rations. It neither reduced the feed-

conversion efficiency nor the rate of weight gain. Indeed, chickens eating

pearl millet actually grew faster and healthier than those eating maize,

sorghum, triticale, or wheat.

This was an important discovery because although maize is the

Southeast's main poultry feed, it grows poorly there and the local poultry

industry has to import maize from the Midwestern states. Some observers

now conclude that as transportation costs increase, locally grown pearl

millet could soon replace the imported maize as the poultry feed of choice.

Several other areas of the country where maize is difficult to grow seem

likely to switch over as well.

Cattle

Metabolism and feedlot trials in both the Midwest and the Southeast

have shown that pearl millet is also good for feeding

PEARL MILLET: COMMERCIAL TYPES 114

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Plainview, Texas, 1992. Hybrid pearl millet being harvested. In both the

Southeast (mainly Georgia) and Midwest (Kansas and Nebraska) hybrid pearl

millets have been created. At about I m tall, they are half the normal height and

can be harvested by combine. Big improvements in production have been

achieved; grain yields of 3,000 kg per hectare are not uncommon. Commercial

varieties, like the one shown, have been released for farm use. (M. Marley)

cattle. The grain's oil content, which is more than twice that of maize or

sorghum, gives it a relatively high energy density. Pearl millet has also

proved potentially useful as a source of protein.* Compared with maize, it

had higher concentrations of both crude protein (about 14 percent of the dry

matter) and essential amino acids.

* Christensen et al., 1984.

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TEMPERATE-ZONE TYPES

Traditionally, pearl millet has been grown within about 30

of the equator,

but these days certain types are already growing each year in various parts of the

United States—in Georgia, Kansas, and Missouri, for example—that are far

from the equator. Moreover, although the plant is almost synonymous with

drought and deserts, it is also growing well in mild and humid locations such as

the sandy coastal plains of south Georgia and Alabama.

In these temperate areas of America, pearl millet is potentially invaluable as a

summer annual grain crop. Maize is poorly adapted to this region where its own

shallow roots (blocked by the acid subsoils) and the common summer droughts

result in low yields. Hybrid pearl millet develops deep root systems in these acid

soils, resulting in much more dependable yields. Pearl millet also resists midges

and the lesser cornstalk borer, two insects that severely affect sorghum.

Moreover, no aflatoxin problems have been observed with pearl millet.

In addition, pearl millet is giving the farmers in the Southeast undreamed of

flexibility. Whereas maize must be planted within a two-week window in April,

pearl millet can be planted at any time between April and July. This means that it

can skirt the hazards of summer and still mature a crop before winter chills cut

off all growth.

EARLY TYPES

A driving force behind U.S. pearl millet research is the chance that pearl

millet might make double-cropping possible. This is now approaching reality.

Rapidly maturing cultivars are soon to be released, and these are the types now

seen as promising for the belt stretching from the Carolinas to Colorado. Planted

in spring, just after the winter wheat has been harvested, they can ripen a crop

before autumn, when the next winter-wheat crop needs to be planted. Key to this

rotation is pearl millet's inherent ability to tolerate heat as well as drought. The

plant survives and yields grain even during the sweltering summer and on the

(often meager) moisture left unused in the soil by the preceding wheat crop. No

other cereal can do that.

The global value of such precocious pearl millets could be substantial.

TROPICAL TYPES

Although pearl millet is the quintessential dryland cereal, it is also found in

some of Africa's wet and humid tropical zones. Much pearl

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millet is grown, for example, in relatively high rainfall areas of Ghana. The types

there are entirely different from those of West Africa's nearby dry zone. In

general, they have seedheads (spikes) that are shorter and fatter; grains that are

bigger, rounder, and whiter; and plants that mature much earlier. These

differences are so conspicuous that the plants were previously classified as a

separate species.

Such types there have been little studied or appreciated by the world at

large. Yet they appear to be promising in their own right and are good sources of

genes for earliness and large grain size.

The potential of pearl millet for the tropics can be seen in Ghana, where

early millet is extremely important to rural people. The type grown there normally

matures at the peak of the rainy season, a time when farmers have exhausted their

food stocks from the previous harvest. At first, they gather pearl millet when the

grains are in the dough stage and are soft and sweet. Usually, the freshly

harvested heads are steamed, threshed, and dried. This process—the exact reverse

of normal practice—probably makes it possible to recover the immature grains

that would otherwise turn to mush when threshed.

SUGARY TYPES

In India, as in Ghana (see above), pearl millet is sometimes roasted and

consumed like sweet corn. Here, too, the grain is harvested in the milk or dough

stage. This is a facet of pearl millet that has received little (if any) investigation.

Yet it is reminiscent of the situation with maize a century or so ago. At that time

the practice of eating maize grain in the soft, sweet, doughy stage was known

only to a few Indian children and perhaps some adventurous farmers.

Today,

"sweet corn" is a major food of North America, and a huge research effort has

been expended on selecting strains whose grains convert sugar to starch only

slowly so that they stay sweet. Canned sweet corn is in fact America's favorite

preserved vegetable and has been outselling all the others since World War I.

Pearl millet, too, should have a big future as a sweet treat to be eaten more

like a vegetable than a cereal.

Pennisetum gambiense Stapf & Hubb. Today, however, they are considered to belong

to race globosum of Pennisetum glaucum native to Ghana, Togo, Benin.

Appa Rao et al., 1982.

This is a fascinating tradition, well worthy of study and emulation. See section on

parboiling, page 301.

Sweet corn was not seen by the first colonists who reached North America, and when

it was found in a valley in central New York in 1799 it was not appreciated at first. Some

was planted along the coast but evoked no particular interest. Sweet corn began to be

cultivated widely only after the Civil War (that is, in the 1860s).

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POPPING TYPES

In India pearl millet is commonly popped. Dry grains sprinkled onto hot

sand burst like popcorn. The pops are sometimes eaten with powdered sugar or

brown sugar (jaggery).

The types that pop best have been given little or no special study. But

popping is a promising method for bettering this crop (see Appendix C, page

297) and should be investigated further. Select types with round grains and

impervious seed coats (so that the steam building up inside can reach the

explosive levels necessary for good popping) will probably prove best.

LIGHT-COLORED TYPES

Although most of the pearl millets so far grown are tan or brown, white-

grained types for the large-scale commercial production of food for people are

now under development. These are attractive to look at and are sweet to the taste.

Some have high protein contents. Also known are some yellow-grained pearl

millets that are rich in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. So far, however, they

have been little appreciated.

EASY-PROCESSING TYPES

As noted earlier, pearl millet is among the more difficult grains to prepare.

For one thing, the whole grain (caryopsis) contains a high proportion of germ.

But more important, the germ is embedded inside the kernel and is difficult to

remove. It is for this reason that traditional hand decortication often produces low

yields of flour (not to mention its tendency to go rancid during storage).

The need for cultivars with improved dehulling properties is critical. Indeed,

varieties with large, spherical, uniform, hard kernels that produce high milling

yields already exist, but have not been documented systematically or brought into

large-scale commercial production.

When pearl millets are processed into food products, there will be a need for

larger supplies of more uniform grain with desirable milling properties and

acceptable flavor, color, and keeping properties.

CUISINE-SPECIFIC TYPES

Most of the world's cereal breeding is done with foods such as bread, cakes,

cookies, crackers, canelloni, or various breakfast

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concoctions in mind. But for pearl millet to sell in a big way in Africa it must be

good for very different foods. In Africa (as well as in India), the major pearl

millet foods are unfermented bread, fermented breads, thick and thin porridges,

steam-cooked products, beverages, and snacks. Little or no information is

currently available on which pearl millets have the best properties for each of

these foods. This is a handicap. Undoubtedly, superior types exist and collections

and investigations should be made in the houses of the users themselves. As we

have said in the previous chapter, however, it is difficult to quantify, let alone

breed for, the organoleptic properties of certain foodstuffs.

QUALITY-NUTRITION TYPES

Contrary to general opinion and oft-repeated statements in textbooks, pearl

millet is one of the more nutritious of the common cereals. As has been noted, its

grain has more fat than most, and its level of food energy (784 kilocalories per

kg) is among the highest for whole-grain cereals. It also has more protein, and its

level of the essential amino acid lysine is better than in most cereals.

However, some pearl millet grain may suffer (nutritionally speaking)

because it is low in threonine and the sulfur-containing amino acids. Also, its

lysine level could still be improved. Of course, the other major grains have the

same defect, but in the last few decades high-lysine types have been found in

maize, sorghum, and barley. It seems likely that a diligent search through the

world's pearl millets with an amino-acid analyzer could disclose something

similar.

HYBRIDS

As already mentioned, the development of maize hybrids in the 1930s led to a

quadrupling of yields. A similar breakthrough, allowing the practical production

of pearl millet hybrids, came in the late 1960s, when the first hybrids were

created.

High-yielding, hybrids have been in use in India since 1966. Heterosis

(hybrid vigor) in pearl millet can be substantial.

Indian scientists have succeeded

in developing hybrids that can almost double the yield of local cultivars.

These were developed in the United States by Glenn Burton.

Naturally, the types used to make the hybrid must be genetically diverse. The common

finding that the hybrids show no increase in vigor apparently is owing to the fact that the

types crossed were too closely related. Information from W. Hanna.

In India, hybrid millets are used almost exclusively in irrigated farming. The yields

can be spectacular, but they are not relevant to most of Africa's pearl millet production.

Even in India, dryland farmers still use the nonhybrid forms.

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Today, hybrid pearl millets are being planted in Kansas and Georgia. They

are half the normal height—only a meter or so tall—and are capable of producing

more than 3,000 kg grain per hectare. Their short stature and uniform growth

make them amenable to harvest by combine. Commercial varieties are now being

released to farmers.

APOMICTIC TYPES

As is well known, hybrids have the limitation that farmers must buy new

seed every year or so. Although in many countries this is now a routine part of

farming and is seldom constraining, the farmer must be able to buy the seed and

the suppliers must be able to produce enough and deliver it on time for the

planting season. In rural Africa that can be a problem.

Forms of hybrids that maintain their production potential from generation to

generation are being developed in pearl millet (see box, page 123). These forms,

known as apomictic types, are on the verge of being perfected.

TOP-CROSS HYBRIDS

Crop varieties sometimes come to disastrous ends when circumstances

change or a new disease arrives. In the case of hybrids, the disaster can be

particularly severe because creating a replacement is a long and uncertain process

that must start afresh with new genetic material. The whole operation might well

take 10 years or more of diligent and dedicated effort. But plant breeders at the

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in

India have developed a strategy to keep pearl millet hybrids going indefinitely,

even when new diseases arise or conditions change.

Normally, hybrids are developed using two inbred parents of known and

uniform qualities. ICRISAT's strategy is to replace one parent with an open-

pollinated variety of broad genetic background.

The resulting products, called ''top-cross" hybrids, are now being tested. So

far they have yielded as well as the best of the old hybrids and yet have shown

greater resistance to disease (presumably because they have a wider range of

genes).

In Georgia, hybrid seed is produced and sold by a company that raises chickens. It

provides the seed to farmers and contracts to buy their crop. The company's incentive is

that pearl millet makes a better chicken feed than maize and can be grown locally. (As

noted above, summer droughts and acid soils make maize uncompetitive in this corner of

the country.)

See Research Contacts for ICRISAT address.

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This is all well and good, but it is in the prevention of future difficulties that

top-cross hybrids really shine. Should one of them ever succumb to disease, plant

breeders can introduce resistance through the open-pollinated parent in just a

generation or two (in, say, not more than 2 years). It is possible, therefore, to keep a

hybrid strong and secure by performing parallel breeding on the open-pollinated

parent as a sort of ongoing genetic preventive maintenance.

The ICRISAT plant breeders are now taking the strategy a stage further and

replacing even the sole remaining inbred parent with a hybrid of broad genetic

background. This means that the resulting hybrid has even more genetic

variability within it. This method helps, too, in reducing the cost of seed

production.

WIDE CROSSES

Pearl millet (that is, Pennisetum glaucum) will hybridize with a few wild

Pennisetum species, some of them very distantly related. Crosses with close

relatives produce fertile hybrids, thus permitting extensive modifications to the

genomes of both. Some hybridization work has already been done involving

napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum ). Pearl millet x napier grass hybrids have

been released for perennial fodder supplies in India. the United States, and

various other nations.

Two wild and weedy subspecies (Pennisetum glaucum subspecies monodii

and Pennisetum glaucum subspecies stenostachyum) also readily cross with pearl

millet. The useful characteristics they can confer include disease- and insect

resistance, genes for fertility restoration of the A

cytoplasm, cytoplasmic

diversity, high yield under adverse conditions, apomixis, early maturity, and

many inflorescence and plant morphological characteristics.

Among other possibly useful wild species are Pennisetum squamulatum,

Pennisetum orientale, Pennisetum faccidum, and Pennisetum setaceum.

Pearl millet has also been crossed with species of completely different

genera, including buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris).

In an approach that turns normal practice on its head, at least one researcher

is using pearl millet to "improve" its wild relatives. The resulting tough, resilient,

almost-wild Pennisetum hybrids appear useful for stabilizing desertifying

environments, while giving those who live there a chance to get some food.

Read and Bashaw, 1974.

Information from G.F. Chapman.

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GENETIC JEWELS

Pearl millet is not now used as a genetic-research organism, but

potentially it could be one of the best plants for illuminating details of both

traditional and molecular genetics. A by-product from such fundamental

science is likely to be new forms that increase the crop's value for meeting

food needs.

THE PLANT WORLD'S DROSOPHILA

As a tool for investigating genetic interactions, pearl millet has the

promise to rival drosophila, the fruit fly with which researchers have

plumbed the details of animal genetics since the 1930s. Consider the

following.

• The pearl millet plant is robust and demands so little space that it can

grow in a 5-cm pot.

• It matures so quickly that four generations a year are possible. (Some

genotypes flower just 35 days after planting; others can be induced into

this by employing short daylengths and high temperatures.)

• It produces masses of progeny. A single inflorescence can produce

1,000 or more seeds, and a single plant (if unrestrained) can produce 25

or more inflorescences.

• Its flowers are small but are ideally set up for genetic manipulation.

Unlike those on most plants, they are receptive to fertilization before

shedding their own pollen; researchers can therefore readily cross-

pollinate a given flower or merely leave it to self-pollinate.

• Its chromosomes are large and easy to count.

• The plants resulting from cross-pollinations usually grow with pronounced

hybrid vigor, so that the genetic interactions are clear.

• There is abundant natural genetic diversity: pearl millet's gene pool

encompasses about 140 species or subspecies belonging to the genus

Pennisetum.

• Many genetic states can be obtained. The different Pennisetum species

have chromosome numbers in multiples of x = 5, 7, 8, and 9. For each

of these, there are various ploidy levels, ranging from diploid to octoploid

and beyond. In addition, both annual and perennial species occur. And

there are types that are sexual or apomictic (see below).

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FATHERLESS GRAINS

Like most plants, pearl millet produces seeds that have the

characteristics of both parents. Certain of its relatives, however, produce

seeds with only their mother's genes. For them, each new generation is

identical to the last.

This situation is known as apomixis. It is not unusual in wild grasses,

but to introduce it into crops has been considered too complicated, too

expensive, or just too far-out. However, all that is now changing. Within the

genus Pennisetum, apomictic types have been located in a number of

species. If their trait for self-replication can be transferred to pearl millet,

profound benefits would result.

For one thing, with apomictic pearl millet the farmer's fields would be

safe from genetic drift. No longer would pollen blowing in from wild and

weedy relatives downgrade the elite varieties. For another, seed from

different apomictic varieties could be mixed, and the farmer would retain the

security of natural diversity as well as the productivity of man-made

varieties.

For a third, apomictic pearl millet hybrids could be propagated by seeds

for an unlimited number of generations without losing their genetic edge.

Farmers would no longer have to buy fresh seed every year to enjoy the

benefits of a hybrid.

The apomictic types of the wild Pennisetum species are not themselves

promising as crops. They produce few seeds and have many weedy

characteristics. But their gene for apomixis can be transferred to the pearl

millet plant. Indeed, significant progress has already been made transferring

this gene from the wild African grass Pennisetum squamulatum to cultivated

pearl millet.* This development could catapult pearl millet into being a

leader in high-tech agriculture.

Progress is being made in finding molecular markers associated with

apomixis. This association will allow researchers in the future to isolate the

gene(s) controlling apomixis and possibly use them to produce true-

breeding hybrids in many crops. Indeed, in this way pearl millet's genes

have the potential to revolutionize food production around the world.

* This work has been performed by Wayne Hanna at the Coastal Plain Experimental Station

in Tifton, Georgia. The full address, as well as a contact for more information on apomixis,

can be found in Appendix G, page 342.

PEARL MILLET: COMMERCIAL TYPES 123

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Recently, researchers in Zimbabwe have crossed pearl millet with 49 different

accessions of napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum). In doing so, they generated

over 200 hybrids between the two near relatives. This was done not to improve

the pearl millet, but to raise the yield and protein content of the napier grass, a

widely used forage. The new hybrids yield 30-40 percent more dry matter but

also 20-40 percent (9 percent versus 11-13 percent) more protein than the forms

presently cultivated by local farmers. (ICRISAT)

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SWEET-STALK TYPES

At least two grasses—sugarcane and sweet sorghum (see page 198) produce

stems filled with sugar. Apparently, nobody thought to look for this trait in pearl

millet until the 1980s, when some Indian scientists stumbled on some during a

germplasm-collecting expedition in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

In the

area around Coimbatore and Madurai, they found types that at maturity contained

more than twice the normal amount of soluble sugars.

These sweet-stalk types had long narrow leaf blades, profuse nodal tillering

(with asynchronous maturity), short, thin spikes, and very small grains. They

could be easily identified by chewing them at the dough stage.

The sweet-stalk pearl millet is used as a fodder that is usually harvested in

September, and a subsequent ratoon crop can be taken for grain and straw. The

farmers consider them to be superior feedstuffs because livestock love the sweet

stalks.

TYPES OF THE FUTURE

As can be seen from the above, pearl millet contains a wealth of genetic

strengths and offers almost countless opportunities for innovation and

advancement. Eventually, biotechnology could have a huge impact on such a

diverse crop. It could, for example, be used routinely to transfer pieces of DNA

from variety to variety or from the large numbers of wild Pennisetum relatives

(or even from other genera). Probably, it is only a matter of time before

techniques for this (by using vectors or electrophoration, for example) are

developed.

Such transfers are most effective when the crop's protoplasts (wall-less

cells) can be regenerated into whole plants. Although it is not yet possible to

regenerate protoplasts in pearl millet, it is possible to regenerate suspension

cultures (including those of pearl millet x napier grass hybrids) into whole

plants.

Perhaps the best way to codify the enormous diversity of this crop is to

create a chromosome map (see box, page 34). This is likely to help make possible

all sorts of advances in pearl millet. The task should be easier than with many

crops. Pearl millet is a diploid with seven fairly large chromosomes and a large

number of genes that are already known and definitively mapped.

They include R. Appadurai of Tamil Nadu University, Coimbatore, and S. Appa Rao,

M.H. Mengesha, and V. Subramanian, of ICRISAT. Their first test was to chew on the

stalk. Later, they found that Brix readings can vary from 3 to 16 percent.

All information from W.W. Hanna.

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Sorghum

To include sorghum in a book on "lost" crops, on the face of it, seems like a

gross mistake. After all, the plant is Africa's contribution to the world's top crops.

Indeed, it belongs to the elite handful of plants that collectively provide more than

85 percent of all human energy. Globally, it produces approximately 70 million

metric tons of grain from about 50 million hectares of land. Today, it is the

dietary staple of more than 500 million people in more than 30 countries. Only

rice, wheat, maize, and potatoes surpass it in feeding the human race.

For all that, however, sorghum now receives merely a fraction of the

attention it warrants and produces merely a fraction of what it could. Not only is

it inadequately supported for the world's fifth major crop, it is under-supported

considering its vast and untapped potential. Viewed in this light it is indeed

"lost."

But this situation may not continue much longer. A few researchers already

see that a new and enlightened era is just around the corner. Accorded research

support at a level comparable to that devoted worldwide to wheat or rice or

maize, sorghum could contribute a great deal more to food supplies than it does

at present. And it would contribute most to those regions and peoples in greatest

need. Indeed, if the twentieth century has been the century of wheat, rice, and

maize, the twenty-first could become the century of sorghum.

First, sorghum is a physiological marvel. It can grow in both temperate and

tropical zones. It is among the most photosynthetically efficient plants.

It has one

of the highest dry matter accumulation rates. It is one of the quickest maturing

food plants (certain types can mature in as little as 75 days and can provide three

harvests a year).

The amount produced is not known for certain because sorghum's production statistics

(at least in some countries) are lumped together with millet's. Annual world production of

the two together exceeds 100 million tons, of which 60 million is certainly sorghum. Based

on the FAO figures for 1985. the number of hectares under sorghum are: Africa, 18

million; Asia, 19 million; North and Central America, 9 million; South America, 3

million. The main grain production (in millions of tons) was in the United States (28.70),

India (10.30), China (an estimated 6.80), Mexico (6.60), Argentina (6.20), the Sudan

(4.25), and Nigeria (3.50).

Sorghum uses the C4 "malate" cycle, the most efficient form of photosynthesis. This

fundamental advantage of using sunlight efficiently is found in very few food crops among

the main ones, only sugarcane and maize.

SORGHUM 127

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It also has the highest production of food energy per unit of human or

mechanical energy expended.

Second, sorghum thrives on many marginal sites. Its remarkable physiology

makes it one of the toughest of all cereals. It withstands high rainfall—even some

waterlogging.

Recent research in Israel has shown that it also has some tolerance

to salt—an increasingly useful feature for any crop these days.

But most

importantly, it can endure hot and dry conditions. Indeed, it can produce on sites

so burning and arid that no other major grain-with the exception of pearl millet

—can be consistently grown.

Its massive and deep-penetrating roots are mainly

responsible for this drought tolerance, but the plant has other drought-defying

mechanisms as well. For instance, it apparently conserves moisture by reducing

its transpiration when stressed (by rolling its leaves and possibly by closing the

stomata to reduce evaporation) and it can turn down its metabolic processes and

retreat into near dormancy until the return of the rains.

Third, sorghum is perhaps the world's most versatile crop. Some types are

boiled like rice, some cracked like oats for porridge, some "malted" like barley

for beer, some baked like wheat into flatbreads, and some popped like popcorn

for snacks. A few types have sugary grains and are boiled in the green stage like

sweet corn. The whole plant is often used as forage, hay, or silage. The stems of

some types are used for building, fencing, weaving, broom-making, and

firewood. The stems of other types yield sugar, syrup, and even liquid fuels for

powering vehicles or cooking meals. The living plants are used for windbreaks,

for cover crops, and for staking yams and other heavy climbers. The seeds are fed

to poultry, cattle, and swine. On top of all that, sorghum promises to be a "living

factory." Industrial alcohol, vegetable oil, adhesives, waxes, dyes, sizing for

paper and cloth, and starches for lubricating oil-well drills are just some of the

products that could be obtained.

Fourth, sorghum can be grown in innumerable ways. Most is produced

under rain-fed conditions, some is irrigated, a little is grown by transplanting

seedlings as is done with rice. Like sugarcane, it can also be ratooned (cut down

and allowed to resprout from the roots) to

Exceeding even maize silage, sugarcane, and maize grain. Heichel, 1976.

At least some sorghums can survive standing in water for several weeks. Growth

resumes when the water recedes.

Information from D. Pasternak. Sorghum, however, is not as salt tolerant as several

millets—selection and management will be needed to get good yields under saline

conditions. See companion report. Saline Agriculture, for background on the importance

of salt tolerance. (For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.)

In one drought year the maize (corn) crop was so poor in Mitchell, South Dakota, that

the annual "Corn Palace" had to be built out of sorghum. It was a humiliating comedown,

but no maize could be found—only sorghum had survived.

SORGHUM 128

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provide crop after crop without replanting. It is ideal for subsistence farmers on

the one hand and can be completely mechanized and produced on a vast

commercial scale on the other.

Finally, sorghum is relatively undeveloped. It has a remarkable array of

untapped variability in grain type, plant type, adaptability, and productive

capacity.

Indeed, sorghum probably has more undeveloped and underutilized

genetic potential than any other major food crop.

With all these qualities and potentials, it is small wonder that certain

scientists regard sorghum as a crop with a great future. Undoubtedly, as the world

moves towards the time when its supplies of food will be insufficient for its

supplies of people, this plant will increasingly contribute to the happiness of the

human race. This will happen sooner rather than later. Population is projected to

almost double within most of our lifetimes. How to feed billions of newcomers on

diminishing amounts of prime cropland will likely be the overwhelming global

issue of the period just ahead. Obviously, vast amounts of the less fertile and

more difficult lands must be forced to produce food. Moreover, if the much feared

greenhouse effect warms up the world, sorghum could become the crop of choice

over large parts of the areas that are today renowned as breadbaskets, rice lands,

or corn belts.

In sum, it seems certain that no matter what happens sorghum will assume

greater importance, especially to backstop the increasingly beleaguered food

supplies of the tropics and subtropics. For a hot, dry, and overcrowded planet,

this crop will be an ever-more-vital resource.

This is in fact already starting. Despite only modest international support,

sorghum even now seems to be verging on a global breakout. In the United

States, its yield improvements have outstripped those of all other major cereals.

In India, it is increasingly employed. And in Mexico, Central America, and the

Caribbean—a most unexpected part of the world for this African plant—the most

rapid growth of all is occurring.

Indeed, the rapidity with which Mexico has embraced sorghum is little short

of spectacular. Before 1953, the crop was so little used in Mexico that, as far as

international statistics were concerned, it didn't exist there. However, by 1970 it

was being planted on nearly I million hectares, and by 1980 on nearly 1.5 million

hectares. The reason is a pragmatic one: sorghum is not only cheaper to produce,

it yields about twice as much grain as maize in Mexico (2,924 kg per hectare

versus 1,508 kg per hectare in one recent test). Also, where rainfall is unreliable,

sorghum is proving the more dependable of the two.

There is such diversity in this crop that as many as 18 subspecies were once

recognized by botanists.

Leng, 1982.

SORGHUM 129

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Mexico uses most of its sorghum grain for animal feed, but it is increasingly

relying on new, food-quality sorghums. These produce grains suitable for making

tortillas, the round flat bread that is Latin America's staple food. In addition,

sorghum is also being used to make breakfast cereals, snacks, starch, sugars, and

other products that currently come from maize. It is even the basis for some

(European-type) beers in Mexico, a country renowned for its brewing skills.

Although these developments demonstrate sorghum's capabilities and

almost certainly portend a coming boom in production throughout much of the

world, much remains to be done before this crop can truly fulfill its international

potential. At present, it has several drawbacks, including the following:

• Lack of status. In global terms, sorghum is being held back by the

mistaken prejudice that it is a ''coarse" grain, "animal feed," and "food of

the peasant classes."

• Low food value. In its overall nutrient composition—about 12 percent

protein, 3 percent fat, and 70 percent carbohydrate—sorghum grain hardly

differs from maize or wheat. However, sorghum has two problems as far

as food quality is concerned. One is tannins, which occur in the seed coats

of brown sorghum grains. When eaten, tannins depress the body's ability

to absorb and use nutritional ingredients such as proteins. Unless the

brown seeds are carefully processed, some tannins remain, and this

reduces their nutritional effectiveness.

The other problem is protein quality, which affects all sorghums, both

brown and white. A large proportion of the protein is prolamine, an

alcohol-soluble protein that has low digestibility in humans.

• Difficulty in processing. Sorghum is harder to process into an edible form

than wheat, rice, or maize.

Ultimately, none of these drawbacks is a serious barrier to sorghum's

grander future, but each is a drag that—like a sea anchor in the tide of progress

—is holding the crop from its destiny. Moreover, all of them can be overcome, as

the following chapters demonstrate.

This plant's potential is so great that we have devoted the following four

chapters to its various types. The next chapter highlights sorghum's promise for

subsistence farmers—the millions in Africa and Asia (not to mention Latin

America) to whom the plant means life itself. The subsequent chapter highlights

commercial sorghums—the types that are increasingly grown by farmers who

produce a surplus. The chapter that follows highlights specialty sorghums—

unusually promising food

The alcohol-soluble fraction makes up about 59 percent of the total protein in normal

sorghum. The amount of this indigestible protein is lower in other cereals.

SORGHUM 130

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The extent to which Africa stands to benefit from sorghum research can be seen

from this map. The crop is perhaps the continent's most widespread and

important staple. Beyond the fact that yields can be raised far above the present

average, sorghum's adaptation to a wide range of ecological conditions is an

enormous asset.

Over the millennia, this ancient food was probably domesticated several times.

At least four major types arose in different places. These are shown. One of the

oldest, the durra (crook-necked) variety, was eaten in Egypt more than 4,000

years ago. Ethiopia is its center of diversity, and durra sorghum is still the staple

food for most of the populace of the Horn of Africa. The region from eastern

Nigeria through Chad and western Sudan is a center of diversity for the caudatum

race. The region from western Nigeria to Senegal gave rise to the guinea race.

The area from Tanzania to South Africa is the center for the kafir race. All of

these separate sorghums have fed countless generations.

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types that are now little known in a global sense but that have outstanding

merits for the future. Finally, there is a chapter on sorghum's promise as a source

of energy as well as on other special qualities that can benefit farms and farmers.

AFRICA'S GIFT TO MEXICO

The rise of sorghum in Mexico has been so spectacular that it has been

called "the country's second Green Revolution." The crop has become the

third largest in terms of area (after maize and beans) as well as in terms of

value (after maize and cotton). Between 1958 and 1980, the number of

hectares sown expanded by almost 1,300 percent and the amount of

sorghum production increased 2,772 percent. More than 1.5 million

hectares of sorghum were sown in 1980—more than double the amount of

land planted to wheat, Mexico's first Green Revolution crop. Mexico has

become the sixth largest sorghum-producing country in the world; only the

United States and China used more of this originally African grain.

The fact that sorghum requires less water than maize or wheat is a

significant advantage in Mexico, which has large areas of arid land. This

has been true even in irrigated areas because the government has

sometimes had to limit irrigation water owing to depleted reservoirs. Also,

sorghum is now grown in some areas where irrigation has salinized the

soil. It requires between two and four irrigations per year, compared to

wheat's six or seven. Although average yields per hectare are not as great

as those of wheat, they are substantially higher than those of maize.

At the beginning, most of Mexico's sorghum was grown for animal

feed. Already, this grain forms a substantial part of the diet of all the

chickens, pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats that are raised in the country.

Although the animal feed industry also uses

These divisions are of course arbitrary. They are simply a convenient way to

present the vast range of this plant's possibilities. There are many areas that

overlap and much common ground between the different types, different

purposes, and different users. In addition, major advances specifically in Africa's

sorghum production are likely to come from methods and technologies that are

beyond the scope of the following chapters: from controlling birds, locusts, and

parasitic weeds to new approaches to milling, grain storage, and erosion control.

These are discussed in appendixes A and B.

SORGHUM 132

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Morelos, Mexico. Farmer with his sorghum crop. (D.H. Meckenstock)

maize, barley, wheat bran, soybeans, and other products, sorghum

supplies 74 percent of the raw material used in animal feed in Mexico.

Now, however, more and more food-grain sorghum is being grown (see

box, page 166).

NUTRITION

Like other cereal grains, sorghum is composed of three main parts: seed coat

(pericarp), germ (embryo), and endosperm (storage tissue). The relative

proportions vary, but most sorghum kernels are made up of 6 percent seed coat,

10 percent germ, and 84 percent endosperm.

In its chemical composition, the kernel (in its whole-grain form) is about 70

percent carbohydrate, 12 percent protein, 3 percent fat, 2 percent fiber, and 1.5

percent ash. In other words, it hardly differs from whole-grain maize or wheat.

When the seed coat and germ are separated to leave a stable flour (from the

starchy endosperm), the chemical composition is about 83 percent carbohydrate,

12 percent protein, 0.6 percent fat, 1 percent fiber, and 0.4 percent ash.

The nutritional components are given in the tables and charts (next page),

but some of the details are discussed below.

SORGHUM 133

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Edible portion (g) 100 Cystine 1.3

Moisture (g) 9 Isoleucine 4.0

Food energy (Kc) 356 Leucine 13.5

Carbohydrate (g) 71 Lysine 2.1

Protein (g) 12.0 Methionine 1.3

Fat (g) 3.4 Phenylalanine 4.9

Fiber (g) 2.0 Threonine 3.3

Dietary Fiber (g) 8.3 Tryptophan 1.0

Ash (g) 2.0 Tyrosine 3.1

Vitamin A (RE) 21 Valine 5.0

Thiamin (mg) 0.35

Riboflavin (mg) 0.14

Niacin (mg) 2.8

Vitamin B6 (mg) 0.5

Biotin (µg) 7

Pantothenic acid (mg) 1.0

Vitamin C (mg) 0

Calcium (mg) 21

Chloride (mg) 57

Copper (mg) 1.8

Iodine (µg) 29

Iron (mg) 5.7

Magnesium (mg) 140

Phosphorus (mg) 368

Potassium (mg) 220

Sodium (mg)

In composition sorghum is similar to maize. Starch is the major

component followed by protein, fat, and fiber. Compared with maize,

however, sorghum generally contains 1 percent less fat and more waxes.

Its complex carbohydrates have properties similar to those from maize.

The protein content is quite variable. The American literature reports

several instances of levels ranging from 8.3 to 15.3 (these were measured

on the milo sorghum that is grown throughout the Midwest). Most samples

fall in the 9 percent protein category and are almost always 1 or 2 percent

higher than in maize.

SORGHUM 134

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However, for human nutrition sorghum protein is "incomplete." It is

deficient in critical amino acids, most importantly lysine. Today's standard

sorghums provide about 45 percent of the recommended lysine

requirement.

Although a primary food for millions of Africans, Asians, and Latin

Americans, sorghum is low in protein digestibility. It must be properly

processed to improve its digestibility. It is perhaps for this reason that much

of Africa's sorghum is subjected to fermentation before it is eaten.

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Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is the grain's major component, with starch making up from 32

to 79 percent of its weight. The remaining carbohydrates are largely sugars,

which can be quite high in certain rare varieties of sorghum grains.

The starches in most sorghums occur in both polygonal and spherical

granules, ranging in diameter from about 5µ to 25µ (average 15µ). Chemically,

the starch is normally made up of 70-80 percent branched amylopectin (a

nongelling type) and 20-30 percent amylose (a gelforming type). However, some

sorghum starches contain as much as 100 percent amylopectin; others, as much as

62 percent amylose.

In its properties, sorghum starch resembles maize starch, and the two can be

used interchangeably in many industrial and feed applications. When boiled with

water, the starch forms an opaque paste of medium viscosity. On cooling, this

paste sets to a rigid, nonreversible gel. The gelatinization temperature ranges from

to 75

Protein

Sorghum's protein content is more variable than that in maize and can range

from 7 to 15 percent.

In most common cultivars, as mentioned above, the

kernel contains about 12 percent, which is 1-2 percentage points higher than

maize.

The protein's amino-acid composition is much like that of maize protein.

Lysine is the first limiting amino acid, followed by threonine.

Tryptophan and

some other amino acids are a little higher than in maize.

The protein contains no gluten. A large proportion of it is prolamine, a

cross-linked form that humans cannot easily digest. In fact, prolamine makes up

about 59 percent of the total protein in normal sorghum. This is higher than in

other major cereals, and it lowers the food value considerably.

In the long term, sorghums that have less prolamine may come available for

routine use. A few of these more nutritious types have already been found: two in

Ethiopia (see page 181) and one in the Sudan (page 183), for instance. Until such

quality-protein sorghums are perfected, however, sorghum grain needs to be

processed if its full protein value is to be realized.

As much as 25 percent has been reported, but these appear to have been in seeds from

stressed plants.

Lysine provides about 45 percent of the recommended requirement. (5.44 g lysine per

100 g protein) FAO/WHO (1973).

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Fat

Generally, sorghum contains about I percent less fat than maize. Free lipids

make up 2-4 percent of the grain and bound lipids 0.1-0.5 percent. The oil's

properties are similar to those of maize oil. In other words, the fatty acids are

highly unsaturated. Oleic and linoleic acids account for 76 percent of the total.

Vitamins

Compared to maize, sorghum contains higher levels of the B vitamins

pantothenic acid, niacin, folate, and biotin; similar levels of riboflavin and

pyridoxine; and lower levels of vitamin A (carotene). Most B vitamins are located

in the germ.

Pellagra—a disease caused by too little niacin in the diet—is endemic among

certain sorghum eaters (as it is among some maize eaters).

Minerals

The grain's ash content ranges from about I to 2 percent. As in most cereals,

potassium and phosphorus are the major minerals. The calcium and zinc levels

tend to be low. Sorghum has been reported to be a good source of more than 20

micronutrients.

Nutritional Concerns

Recently, the status of sorghum's future as a global food was thrown into

disarray by nutritional experiments conducted on malnourished children in Peru.

The conclusion was reached that sorghum was "unfit for human consumption."

Part of the problem was due to the fact that the samples used in Peru came

from milled flour (comprising only the grain's endosperm) and they were merely

boiled into porridge and fed directly. In Africa, by contrast, the whole grain is

ground up (so that the protein- and vitamin-rich germ is also included) and often

some form of fermentation is also employed.

At the heart of the issue of sorghum's nutritive effectiveness is the above-

mentioned fact that almost 60 percent of the protein is in the highly cross-linked

form called prolamine. Human digestive enzymes are unable to break up this

indigestible protein. Even bodies desperately in need of more muscle, enzymes,

blood, and brain continue passing prolamine that might otherwise provide the

necessary amino acids.

However, sorghum has a second problem as far as food quality is

concerned. Tannins, which occur in the seed coats of dark-colored sorghum

grains, block the human body's ability to absorb and use

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proteins and other nutritional ingredients. Unless the grain is a low-tannin (yellow

or white) type or unless brown seed coats are carefully removed, some tannins

remain, and this reduces sorghum's nutritional effectiveness.

Yet a third problem is that when sorghum grain is germinated, a cyanogenic

glucoside is formed. In the shoots, enzymes act on this to produce cyanide. This

is a potential hazard only with germinated sorghum, and not with the grain itself.

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Name

Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench

Synonyms

Sorghum vulgare Pers., S. drummondii, S. guineense, S. roxburghii, S.

nervosum, S. dochna, S. caffrorum, S. nigricans, S. caudatum, S. durra, S.

cernuum, S. subglabrescens.

Common Names

China: kaoliang

Burma: shallu

East Africa: mtama, shallu, feterita

Egypt: durra

English: chicken corn, guinea corn

India: jola, jowar, jawa, cholam, durra, shallu, bisinga

South Africa: Kafir corn

Sudan: durra, feterita

United States: sorghum, milo, sorgo, sudangrass

West Africa: great millet, guinea corn, feterita

Middle East: milo

Description

Sorghum comes in many types. All, however, are canelike grasses between

50 cm and 6 m tall. Most are annuals; a few are perennials. Their stems are

usually erect and may be dry or juicy. The juice may be either insipid or sweet.

Most have a single stem, but some varieties tiller profusely, sometimes putting up

more than a dozen stems. These extra stems may be produced early or late in the

season. Plants that tiller after the harvest has occurred can be cut back, allowed to

resprout, and grown without replanting (like sugarcane).

Soil permitting, the plant produces a deep tap root (see picture, opposite).

However, a large number of multibranched lateral roots

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For a plant with such a modest leaf area, sorghum's roots are huge. This

underground "survival tool" seeks out moisture deep in the soil, equipping the

crop for good growth in semiarid climates. The resulting ability to yield grain

under dry conditions makes sorghum a crucial tool in the fight against world

hunger. (A.B. Maunder, courtesy DeKalb Plant Genetics)

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occupy the upper soil levels, particularly the top meter. They can spread

laterally up to 1.5 m.

The leaves look much like those of maize. A single plant may have as few as 7

or as many as 24 leaves, according to cultivar. At first they are erect, but later

curve downward. During drought they roll their edges together. Rows of ''motor

cells" in the leaves cause the rolling action and provide this unusual method of

reducing desiccation.

The flower head is usually a compact panicle. Each carries two types of

flowers: one type has no stalk (sessile) and has both male and female parts

(perfect); the other is stalked (pedicellate) and is usually male (staminate).

Pollination is by wind, but self-pollination is the rule. The degree of cross-

pollination depends on both the amount of wind and the panicle type, open heads

being more liable to cross-pollination than compact ones.

Grains are smaller than those of maize but have a similar starchy

endosperm. Most are partially covered by husks (glumes). The seed coat varies in

color from pale yellow through purple-brown. Dark-colored types generally taste

bitter because of the tannins in the seed coat. The endosperm is usually white and

floury as in normal maize, but in some types the outer portion is hard and

corneous, as in popcorn.

The crop is always grown from seed. Some seeds show dormancy and will

not germinate for a month or so after harvesting. It is a little-known fact that the

plant can also be propagated by stem cuttings: nodes along the stem have tissues

(primordia) that can produce both roots and sprouts and thereby grow a new

plant.

Sorghum is a diploid (2n = 20).

Distribution

This African crop is now known almost worldwide. Dhows, which have

been crossing the Indian Ocean for some 3,000 years, probably first carried it

away from Africa and took it to India more than 2,000 years ago. It was almost

certainly put on board as seamen's provisions. The sorghums of India are related

to those of the African coast between Somalia and Mozambique.

Sorghum probably traveled overland from India and reached China along the

silk route about 2,000 years ago. It might also have gone by sea directly from

Africa: Chinese seamen reached Africa's east coast more than about 1,000 years

ago (probably in the eighth century AD), and they may well have carried some

seeds home. Cross-pollination with a wild Chinese sorghum

seems the most

likely reason why the

S. propinquum, a diploid member of the Halepensia group.

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JOWAR

For perhaps 20 centuries, sorghum has been a staple of South Asia.

Today, for example, it occupies at least 20 million hectares in India, more

area than any other food crop except rice. In monetary terms "jowar," as it is

locally called, is perhaps India's third most valuable food plant, exceeded

only by rice and wheat.

Outsiders have often dubbed this African grain "the great millet of

India." And no wonder. Jowar is an important food over much of the

country, and especially in the dry areas of the central and southern states.

Millions of Indians eat it. Some use it like rice, but most jowar is milled into

flour. More or less white in color, this flour is used especially for making

traditional unleavened breads (chapatis ). Usually the whole-grain flour is

employed, but some jowar is also polished to remove the germ and create a

flour with a long shelf life. This can be blended with wheat flour (up to 25

percent) for preparing even Western-style raised breads.

Jowar grain is also malted (germinated), and in this form it finds its way

into various processed products, including beer and baby foods. The grains

of certain varieties pop like popcorn when heated. Indians eat the light and

tasty product directly or as a flavoring in baked goods.

And sorghum feeds more than just India's people: its stalks are a major

source of fodder. According to some reports, nothing can match its

combination of high yield and nutritional quality. Varieties with juicy, sweet

stalks have been developed. Cattle find those particularly delicious.

Perhaps 80 percent of India's cultivated sorghums are those (known as

"durras") that are the dominant type in Ethiopia, North Africa, and along the

Sahara's southern fringes. Many improved strains have been developed.

They are grown mainly in the plains and rely on the summer rains, although

some are grown under irrigation.

Jowar is notably important on the black-cotton soils, which are

notoriously difficult to farm. It is one of the few crops that withstands the

wildly fluctuating water tables that produce bottomless mud in the wet

season and something resembling cracked concrete in the dry. An ability to

extract moisture from deep in the heavy vertisol clay is among the crop's

greatest qualities for India.

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sorghum now found in China (the kaoliang group) has its own distinctive

character.

Broomcorn was first grown in Italy in the 1600s and later spread elsewhere

in southern Europe. This form of sorghum has produced most of the Western

world's brooms and brushes ever since. Today, Mexico is a major producer.

Horticultural Varieties

This crop comes in such an array of widely different types that various

botanists have previously recognized 31 species, 157 varieties, and 571 cultivated

forms. However, these all cross readily and without barriers of sterility or

differences in genetic balance, so it seems preferable to group them into a single

species, Sorghum bicolor. Some botanical authorities also include certain wild

sorghums, designating them as varieties within the species.

The ease with which cultivated sorghums cross with wild species (such as S.

arundinaceum) may be a headache for the taxonomist, but it provides great scope

for the plant breeder. Indeed, to synthesize new cultivars, a vast range of genetic

characters can be brought together in bewildering numbers of combinations. As a

result, many cultivars are recognized in Africa, India, the United States, and

elsewhere, and new ones are being continually produced (see later chapters and

notably page 191).

Environmental Requirements

Sorghum is adapted to a wider range of ecological conditions than perhaps

any other food crop. It is essentially a plant of hot, dry regions but takes cool

weather in stride and may also be grown where rainfall is high and even where

temporary waterlogging can occur.

Daylength

Although many cultivars are insensitive to photoperiod, sorghum is basically

a short-day species. Most traditional varieties differentiate from vegetative to

reproductive growth when daylengths shorten to 12 hours. This switch to

flowering often happens just when the rains diminish, and the crop matures in the

dry season that follows, a feature that greatly helps the farmer. Some of these

traditional forms are extremely susceptible to photoperiod and reach impossible

heights if not planted as daylengths shorten. On the other hand, the dwarf

sorghums of the temperate zone are unaffected by daylength and can be planted

year-round where climates permit.

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Rainfall

Although part of the crop is grown in rainy regions, sorghum is remarkably

drought-resistant and is vitally important where the climate is just too dry for

maize.

Altitude

Sorghum is grown from sea level to above 3,000 m.

Low Temperature

The plant is killed by frost. Optimum growth occurs at about 30°C.

High Temperature

It is essentially a plant of the tropics or subtropics, roughly between 40

the equator. However, in the United States it is being pushed ever farther into the

cooler latitudes.

Soil Type

Sorghum tolerates an amazing array of soils. It can grow well on heavy

clays, especially the deep-cracking and black cotton soils of the tropics. It is

equally productive on light and sandy soils. It can withstand a range of soil

acidities (from pH 5.0-8.5) and tolerates salinity better than maize.

Sweet Sorghum

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Sorghum: Subsistence Types

Of all Africa's cereal grains, sorghum is the most important. It shares top

billing with pearl millet in the drier zones and with maize in the wetter ones. In

fact, Africa devotes more hectares to sorghum and millet than to all other food

crops combined.

And sorghum is more important than the bald figures indicate. It is crucial to a

substantial portion of the millions who coax from their meager and often

declining lands barely enough to sustain life. Many—perhaps most—of those

who grow it could hardly survive without this plant. For them, it provides the

dietary energy and nutrients that make the difference between health and hunger.

Sorghum is vital in this way for the majority of the most poverty-stricken

people in two huge belts that together look like the number 7 superimposed on

the map of sub-Saharan Africa. One belt—spanning some 8 degrees of latitude

(from approximately 7° to 15°N)—stretches like a giant sash across West Africa

from Senegal to Chad. The other, equally huge, runs north to south covering the

drier areas of eastern and southern Africa from the Sudan to South Africa (see

map, page 131).

The recent past has not been kind to these two vast regions—especially the

first. To many observers the picture is already bleak and getting bleaker. The

sorghums that provide the subsistence for tens of millions yield on average less

than 700 kg per hectare—sometimes much less. Yields have improved little or

not at all in decades. Some observers question whether technology can ever make a

difference.

The reasons are not unclear. Africa's farmers face a formidable web of

interlocking constraints. There are constraints imposed by nature, which seems to

take special delight in bedeviling Africa. There are constraints imposed by society

and tradition. There are constraints imposed by poverty. And there are constraints

imposed by politics, incompetent government, poor roads, and other

infrastructural impediments. Subsistence farmers must somehow survive and

produce their crops within all of them.

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If the constraints were the same throughout Africa, they might be

manageable; but th ey differ in degree and kind from farmer to farmer, village to

village, valley to valley, and nation to nation. With all these localized and varying

limitations, some people conclude that unified advances of the Green Revolution

type that swept across India and Pakistan in the 1960s are inapplicable. Perhaps a

different approach is needed.

Actually, that approach might come from Africa's own subsistence

sorghums. During thousands of years, farmers have selected varieties to match

their local conditions and food preferences. These traditional types are already

remarkable for their diversity. In Sukumaland in Tanzania, for instance, a single

researcher once counted 109 named cultivars—all of them in common use. In

Samaru, Nigeria, more than 100 local types have been identified. And in the Lake

Turkana area of Kenya there is such a variety of distinctly colored sorghums that

just by looking at a grain, farmers claim that they can identify who grew it—a

form of "natural bar-coding" that is said to ensure against theft.

For Africa as a

whole, the number of distinct sorghums must range into the many thousands.

Some have been reverently handed down from generation to generation.

These traditional sorghums are not only varied, they can have remarkable

qualities. Perhaps centuries of careful observation have gone into their selection.

They incorporate features such as:

• Good seedling emergence and strong early root development (to

compensate for the normal brevity of the early rains);

• Good tillering (to compensate for erratic early rains as well as shoot-fly

attack);

• Long growing cycles (to make best use of infertile soils);

• Resistance to insects (particularly headbugs);

• Resistance to molds; and

• Tolerance of bird pests and striga, a parasitic plant that is an impossible

pest in certain regions.

In addition to the agronomic qualities mentioned above, subsistence

sorghums have been carefully selected for features that affect the appearance,

texture, taste, preparation, or shelf life of traditional foodstuffs. They are mostly

grown by women, and are used primarily in the home to prepare local foods.

Traditionally, people consume the grain as a stiff porridge (toh or ugali), a

thin porridge (uji), or in a range of fermented beverages.

Information from D.J. Lowe.

All this is made possible because sorghum is predominantly self-fertilizing and a given

variety retains its distinctive qualities when it is planted year after year.

Both of these troublesome organisms are described in Appendix A.

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Scratching a living in Nigeria's dry northern region, a farmer plants seeds in soil

turned to dust. Sorghum's adaptation to a wide range of such marginal

conditions is an enormous asset in a crowded world. (Lynn R. Johnson)

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Ethiopians form sorghum flour into dough balls that are boiled to form a

staple food (dawa). In Nigeria, a similar type of dumpling as well as a flaked,

dried sorghum-based food are staples. Many people cook the dehulled grain like

rice, or grind it into flour like wheat and make biscuits, cakes, or unleavened

breads. Some make couscous out of it. Sorghum is also important for brewing

native beer or pombe.

As has been noted, Africa has two vast sorghum belts. Surprisingly, the

conditions in each are so different that varieties perfected in one are seldom

useful in the other.

The following conditions prevail in East and southern Africa:

• Most of the crop is planted as a monoculture and laid out in rows.

• The rainy seasons tend to be short and (in most places) to come once a

year.

• The plant varieties tend to have shorter stems, tight seedheads (panicles),

and relatively high harvest indexes (the ratio of grain to other tissues).

• Birds are often such serious pests that they alone determine what variety is

planted, how it is managed, and what level of inputs is applied (see

Appendix A).

• The main striga species (notably in southern Africa) is the Asian type

(Striga asiatica), so that plant breeders can use genes from striga-resistant

Indian sorghums.

• Sorghums for brewing and for animal feed are increasingly important.

• Both modern varieties and hybrids have been used, at least on a modest

scale, and some types introduced from India have proved extremely

successful.

In West Africa, on the other hand, the following conditions apply:

• Little of the sorghum is grown in monoculture; most is planted in mixtures

with cowpea, pigeonpea, roselle, and other crops.

• The plants are seldom grown in rows, but are scattered randomly and are

often far apart. In the drier parts of this zone the land is neither plowed

nor otherwise prepared before planting, except that it is sometimes

weeded or burned.

• The plants tend to be tall and lanky and have a low harvest index.

• The plants flower toward the end of the rains, thereby helping the grains

escape fungi and sucking bugs, which are prevalent while the rains persist

but disappear during the dry months that follow.

Information based on Carr, 1989.

In Zimbabwe, for instance, this has led to the release of SVI and SV2, both of which

have considerable promise. In Zambia, some equally useful hybrids are in the pipeline.

This is hardly a grave limitation because to most subsistence farmers the stalks are a

vital fodder and no less valuable than the grains.

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• The rainfall can be very erratic.

• Local sorghums are able to produce grains even when severely stressed by

drought. (The types grown in higher rainfall areas produce dense, vitreous

grains; those grown in dry areas produce floury grains.)

• The seeds are borne in open panicles—a feature generally inimical to high

grain yields but one that helps avoid grain molds.

• The main striga is Striga hermonthica, a native species. Most of the

striga-resistant sorghums from India or even from eastern Africa are

susceptible to this parasitic pest.

NEXT STEPS

Actions to open the vast and promising future of subsistence sorghums

include those discussed below.

Sharing Varieties7

As noted earlier, truly outstanding sorghums can be found throughout

Africa. Many are exquisitely fitted to specific niches for subsistence farmers.

Much good could be done merely by making these more widely available. Most

are now unknown beyond the valley or village where they are treasured.

Local types are well proven, and moving them within ecological zones could

be a powerful way to improve the long-term stability of farm production. Even

moving them across ecological zones could become important because there may

be increasing climatic change and uncertainty in the future. Farmers now plant

cultivars suited to the existing rainfall pattern. However, if the pattern changes

(as it did in West Africa in the 1970s) then all local cultivars may become

inappropriate. Materials from another area may be the only way to stave off

disaster.

Strengthening Farming Methods

To improve sorghum in subsistence production, research on farming

methods seems likely to yield quicker benefits than research on breeding plants

for higher yield.

Some improvements seem simple, obvious, and uncomplicated.

For example:

Information from S. Carr.

A 4-year on-farm trial in the early 1980s demonstrated that none of the varieties

carefully bred in research trials could outperform local types over all environments when

the trials were conducted in the villages. In fact, despite the worldwide sorghum breeding

done to date, less than 10 percent of Africa's sorghum area is being planted to

nontraditional types from research stations.

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Burkina Faso. Sorghum farmer inspects his maturing crop. (H.S. Duggal,

courtesy ICRISAT)

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• Watering. Studies conducted over the last 20 years in Burkina Faso, for

instance, suggest that a little extra water applied when the grains are

filling profoundly increases grain yield.

• Fertilization. In some areas, dramatic rises in sorghum grain yields can

come from providing nutrients to the soil.

• Legume rotations. Many lands where sorghum grows were infertile to

begin with or are now worn out. Nitrogen-fixing leguminous plants could

well be the key to rejuvenating most such sites.

• Weed control.

• Water-harvesting and other water-conserving techniques.

• Managing the fields to reduce devastating outbreaks of striga.

Tampering with tradition must be done with caution, however. Some

seemingly obvious improvements can prove detrimental in the long run. For

example, it is not for nothing that West African farmers grow sorghum plants

wide apart. The crop is an excellent scavenger of nutrients and will grow

successfully in soils in which maize fails completely, but it must then have room

to develop large root systems. Typically, agricultural advisers recommend closer

plantings, but where soil fertility is the limiting factor this can reduce the yield.

(Of course, if fertility levels are increased, plant populations can be too.)

Another trap for the unwary is the preparation of the land. There is a strong

interaction between the choice of variety and how the land has been prepared. In

the moister areas, land is cultivated and ridged before planting; elsewhere,

however, the seeds are broadcast onto unprepared ground. ''Improved" varieties

will usually outperform local material only where land is cultivated. Local

varieties, on the other hand, show little response and cultivating the land before

planting can be a waste of time.

Breeding Better Plants

Certain sorghums that yield almost as much as the best grain crops in the

world are known (see next chapter). But for helping the subsistence farmer, an

8,000-kg-per-hectare crop is not a suitable target at the present time. Maximum

yield is usually not the primary

Unfortunately, however, most traditional sorghums have a low harvest index, and the

effects of fertilizers can be disappointing compared with those on maize, for example. The

responses vary depending on the poverty of the soil, but in most sorghum-growing areas

of the drier zones the yield increase generally is less than half that for maize and is too

little to attract many farmers at today's grain and fertilizer prices.

This subject is covered in a companion report, Tropical Legumes: Resources for the

Future. National Academy of Sciences. 1979. National Academy Press. Washington, D.C.

For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.

See companion report More Water for Arid Lands Promising Technologies and

Research Opportunities. National Academy of Sciences. 1974. National Academy Press,

Washington, D.C. For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.

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requirement. Reliability is more important. A yield that can be relied upon year

after year is the primary goal of those whose life depends on their harvests. Thus,

the immediate need is to improve the yield stability, together with whatever yield

increase is compatible with that stability. Average yields of only 1,500 kg per

hectare would double production in Africa (not to mention India).

A "CURE" FOR SORGHUM BORERS

It is often hard to see how to improve on crops and methods that

subsistence farmers have honed to their needs for hundreds or even

thousands of years. However, modern ability to probe deeply into genetics,

entomology, soil science, plant physiology, and other sciences can provide

insights of great potential value. Here is a recent example.

Subsistence farmers value their sorghum stalks so highly that the

grains are sometimes almost a secondary consideration. The stalks are

vital for building houses, for fencing, and for firewood (see page 195). But

there is a risk in employing them. Larvae of the sorghum stem borer

(Busseola fusca) shelter inside. Thus, a farmer who keeps lots of stalks

around is providing a haven for his worst enemy; eventually, the larvae will

turn into adults that will come out in swarms to devastate the next crop.

A Nigerian researcher, A.A. Adesiyun,* has recently been looking into

this long-standing problem. By monitoring the popula

Crop-breeding objectives for stabilizing yields for resource-poor farmers in

Africa include:

• Raising pest and disease resistance (see below).

• Boosting tolerance to drought, humidity, and other changeable

environmental stresses. (These tolerances, however, are pretty high

already. In many locations it would be better to breed for higher yield at

the existing tolerance levels.)

• Improving grain quality, especially those qualities that are important in

storage and processing.

Some of these resistances and tolerances can be bred for outside the local

area. "Hot spots" have been identified for many traits of economic importance.

Midge, for example, is constantly severe at Sierra Talhada in northeast Brazil;

Busseola fusca is severe at Samaru in northern Nigeria. An appropriate network

of national or regional stations in similar areas could provide a powerful method

for screening

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and mobilizing masses of useful local germplasm far more rapidly than at

present.

tion inside the stalks he has come to appreciate the features that affect

the pest and can thereby guide farmers on how to keep their stalks and

have good harvests as well.

Naturally, farmers stack the stalks out of weather during the off-

season. Adesiyun has found that this is good for the bugs: in the shade only

20 percent die, and all the rest eventually emerge, eager for more sorghum

to bore into. However, Adesiyun then found that just stacking the stalks out

in the open doubled the number of insects that succumbed. And this was

nothing compared to warming the stalks over a fire or spreading them out

thinly to bake in the sun for 3 days. This killed a whopping 95 percent of the

larvae sheltering inside. The stalks could then be stored safely, even in the

traditional stacks in the shade. Moreover, the "cured" stalks could be used

around the house or the farm with little risk of infecting the fields with hordes

of hungry hoppers.

* Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Samaru, Zaria, Nigeria.

For subsistence use in Africa, it is usually important to breed multipurpose

sorghums. Tall plants may be anathema to a cereal breeder, but to many small-

scale farmers long stalks are resources vital for fencing, thatching, firewood, and

other utilitarian purposes. Those farmers will not switch to a short-stalked type no

matter how high-yielding.

Raising Pest Resistance

Among the traditional sorghums of the tropics are some with good resistance

to foliar diseases and excellent tolerance to most of the indigenous insect pests.

However, to maintain this happy position, research must be continued, especially

on the use of systemic insecticides against borers and shoot-fly.

Unfortunately,

the natural resistance is closely related to the amount of phenolic compounds

(particu

Information from S. Carr.

Extracts from the neem tree are promising in this regard. See the companion report,

Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems. National Research Council. 1992. National

Academy Press, Washington, D.C. For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.

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larly the condensed tannins), and these compounds make it harder for people to

digest the sorghum grain (see page 179).

THE DILEMMA OF DAYLENGTH

It has been a tenet of modern crop breeding that eliminating sensitivity

to daylength is a good thing—the resulting varieties can be grown at many

latitudes and in different seasons. But West African subsistence farmers

use daylength-sensitive sorghums in an ingenious and sophisticated

manner that helps ensure a harvest even in the shortest and most erratic of

seasons.

The actual week when the rains will start in the Sahel is unpredictable.

The rains may be early, late, or sporadic. However, when the rains will

cease is much more consistent. Unfortunately, though, once the rains have

stopped, the ground rapidly dries out, leaving little chance for more growth.

Thus, although the start of the planting season can vary, the crop must

complete its cycle by the given time when the rains come to an end.

Traditional cultivars in West Africa have been selected to flower a little

before the rains end, no matter whether the rains began early, late, or on

time. The length of day triggers the flowering, not the age of the plant nor

the status of the rains.

Local sorghums have evolved over centuries under those austere and

fluctuating conditions. They fill out quality grains even under the stress of

drought and the boom-and-bust cycles caused by sporadic showers.

Introduced varieties and hybrids, by contrast, are "shocked" by the sudden

onset and extreme stress of a Sahelian dry season. They seem to collapse

physiologically and set floury grains that are useless as food.*

* Information from J.F. Scheuring.

Breeders can also help stabilize yields dramatically by breeding genotypes

tolerant of striga. In fact, this is vital. Any "improved" materials lacking striga

tolerance could be catastrophic to farmers in areas where this parasite is serious. A

striga plant produces tens of thousands of seeds, each of which can remain viable

for a decade or more. If susceptible sorghums are introduced, this terrible pest

could quickly get out of hand and fill the soil with seeds that act like 10-year time

bombs. Luckily, there now seem to be good possibilities for identifying and

breeding striga-resistant types (see Appendix A).

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Improving Bird Resistance

As noted elsewhere, birds prevent farmers from cultivating the most

palatable sorghums in many parts of Africa. Today's bird-resistant types have

seed coats containing tannins, which are both bitter and difficult to digest. If a

more satisfactory solution can be found, it could be an outstanding contribution to

Africa's future, and it would certainly help boost the production of sorghum. New

possibilities have recently been discovered (see Appendix A).

Increasing Mold Resistance

In many parts of Africa, molds that destroy grain in the head (panicle) are

holding sorghum back. If cultivars more resistant to such damage can be found,

then earlier, fast-maturing types could be grown regardless of the humidity during

the harvest period. Also, types with dense panicles (a better yielding and more

efficient form) could be planted where now only quick-drying open-panicle types

are practical. Some strains are inherently resistant to mold regardless of panicle

type; these deserve much greater research attention.

Another, relatively easy, intervention is the treatment of seeds against smuts

that affect the crop in the seedling stage.

Easing the Burden of Handling

The amount of hand labor needed to prepare the land, control the weeds, and

scare away the birds is a serious limit to sorghum production in African

subsistence farming. These are significant barriers to increased production. Thus,

a major issue raised by any innovation is how much hand labor it demands. This

is important to any farmer who has to work the fields by hand. In hoe agriculture

one can literally "work oneself to death" by expending more energy than he or

she gets out of the harvest.

End Use

As already noted, subsistence sorghums are able to meet the complex array

of local requirements. The storage life, processing characteristics, and taste of

toh, ugali, uji, dawa, and other traditional sorghum-based foods are paramount

—more important than the absolute level of yield in the field.

Features that affect traditional foods are hard for scientists to quantify and

breed for, especially when the research must be done in centralized research

facilities. Subsistence-sorghum breeding is made

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Threshing the harvest. (Zefa Picture Library, London)

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even more difficult by the fact that Africa may have as many sorghum

dishes as it has cooks.

Already, sorghums improved with exotic germplasm have been rejected

because the toh they produced didn't keep its texture long enough. (The starch gel

collapsed overnight.) The sorghum program in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali

currently uses small diagnostic tests to evaluate advanced breeding materials for

toh keeping quality. This approach, by which the plant breeders are directed as

much by food technologists and home economists as by yield in the field, is a

refreshing and much-needed innovation.

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Sorghum caffrorum

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Sorghum: Commercial Types

Today in Africa, sorghum is grown mostly for subsistence (see previous

chapter). It feeds farmers and families who seldom, if ever, have any surplus to

sell. But beyond Africa sorghum production is rising, mainly due to farmers who

sell their grain so that others can eat. The United States, Mexico, Honduras, and

Argentina are just some of the nations now taking advantage of this crop's

powerful performance under pampered conditions. Indeed, it is paradoxical that

while Mexico's maize is replacing Africa's sorghum in Africa, in Mexico itself

the opposite is happening: sorghum is replacing maize in many areas (see box,

page 133).

The commercial approach will eventually assist Africa as well. Growing

sorghum the way commercial wheat and maize are grown can produce harvests

of 3,000 rather than 700 kg per hectare. Indeed, the fact that sorghum has vast

untapped commercial potential is important to the future of much of the world.

Large areas in Central Asia, northern and central China, South America, and

Australia have the potential for expanding the production of sorghum as a large-

scale, high-tech competitor of the world's top three grains: wheat, rice, and

maize.

Part of the problem in Africa is that so far sorghum has never been

developed as a major food for urban areas. Lacking markets, it remains a crop of

the small cultivator, consumed largely on the land where it is produced. But this

need not—indeed should not—continue as the sole method of sorghum

production. As with other crops, sorghum deserves the attention that governments

give to any basic food commodity: stockpiling, purchase of surpluses, price

supports, research, and policy support, for instance.

One particular restraint on sorghum has been the lack of processed foods—

flour, meal, breads, or other materials—for use by those who are not farmers and

are not prepared to devote hours of every day making flour from raw grain. The

development of a sorghum-based food-processing industry would do much to

offset Africa's shift in demand toward imported rice and wheat.

SORGHUM: COMMERCIAL TYPES 159

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SORGHUM IN AMERICA

When introduced to the United States in the middle of the last century,

sorghum was first cultivated on the Atlantic coast. By 1900, it had spread as

far west as California. Today, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri are

the leading producers. The crop's value now averages about $1.1 billion

annually. Much is exported. In 1990, the United States shipped 7,239,000

tons of grain sorghum—almost half of all it produced. Japan was the largest

buyer, followed by Mexico.

In the United States itself, grain sorghum is most commonly used as

livestock feed. It is fed to cattle (both beef and dairy), poultry, pigs, lambs,

horses, catfish, and shrimp. The grain has many industrial uses as well. It is

used in foundry-mold sands, charcoal briquets, and oil-well-drilling mud. In

addition, sorghum flour is used in the manufacture of plywood and gypsum

to build houses as well as in the refining process of potash and aluminum.

Some of the ethanol used to fuel American cars is made from grain

sorghum.

Although it can be found from the Carolinas to California, sorghum is grown

primarily in the Great Plains in the center of the United States. (One dot equals

2,000 hectares.)

SORGHUM: COMMERCIAL TYPES 160

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Sorghum harvest on the High Plains of Texas. (A.B. Maunder)

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There are good reasons for thinking that this may come about. And soon.

For example, recent research has shown that sorghum grain can be parboiled to

create a fast-cooking, convenient food just as has been done with rice. Also,

various projects are under way to produce sorghum flour for sale in stores. In

fact, in Botswana sorghum meal is already commercially available.

Nigeria, too,

is pioneering the processing of locally grown sorghum to replace imported grains

(see box).

By and large, the actions needed to boost commercial farming differ

dramatically from those needed by subsistence farming. Whereas subsistence

farmers may be tied (for reasons of precedent, poverty, environment, or fear of

the unknown) to local varieties, commercial farmers are not. They can use newly

created sorghum varieties, including hybrids and the best of research-facility

results. Their grain is to be sold, probably to markets where the products of

perhaps thousands of other farmers are pooled. In this case, the standard varieties

demanded by the mass market take precedence, and the cash earned by selling

them may pay for fertilizers and other inputs that are beyond the meager means

of subsistence growers.

The evidence is persuasive that—just as in the cases of wheat, maize, and

rice—sorghum responds dramatically to modern technology. For instance,

although subsistence-sorghum yields have remained static at or below 700 kg per

hectare, those of commercial sorghums have jumped like those of the Green

Revolution crops in Asia. In the 1970s for instance, yields from India's rainfed

sorghum increased 50 percent (from 484 to 734 kg per hectare) and Argentina's

rose 55 percent. Irrigated yields are considerably higher: in India, about 1,800 kg

per hectare is common. Hybrid sorghums can achieve even more: 4,5006,500 kg

per hectare are now not unusual yields in the United States, Europe, China, and

on commercial farms in Zimbabwe.

In a few cases, sorghum's yield ceiling has been raised to dazzling heights.

For example, yields of 13,000 kg per hectare are being reported under special

conditions in Mexico.

In Argentina and the United States 12,000 kg per hectare

have been measured. Farmers in China are said to average 10,000 kg per hectare

in certain areas.

Given such advances, sorghum's total global production may eventually

match that of maize. And perhaps more important, much of the production will be

at sites where maize can barely survive. This will greatly increase the food

available in the world.

For information on both parboiling and flour production, see Appendix B.

Mean grain yields in the United States—around 1,200 kg per hectare before the release

of hybrids—are now 4,200 kg per hectare.

Vega, 1984.

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The rest of this chapter highlights certain forms of sorghum that could help

this plant reach its ultimate performance outside the confines and constraints of

subsistence farming.

TYPES FOR ALL SEASONS

Sorghum's ultimate promise is perhaps best glimpsed in a research program

in Texas and Puerto Rico. The Sorghum Conversion Project, as it is called, is a

concentrated research effort that has catalyzed much of the present improvement

in sorghum. It changes tall, late, or nonflowering varieties that produce well only

in the tropics into short, early-maturing forms that can be used in many parts of

the world, including the temperate zones. Its materials are already opening new

horizons in sorghum production. Indeed, it is these materials that have led to the

big jump in sorghum production in the United States, Mexico, Central America,

parts of South America, and elsewhere. All in all, the result of this project could

be one of the most significant advances in food production of this era.

In essence, the conversion program has vastly enhanced the source material

available to sorghum breeders. It provides seeds of hundreds of types that are not

only productive and adaptable, but also contain genetic resistance to insects and

diseases and have desirable food qualities. Of the 1,300 lines in the program,

more than 400 have been ''converted" as of 1991.

These select lines are being

used to develop gene pools from which breeders can draw genotypes that best fit

their local needs and environments.

This development is described in more detail in the box (see page172).

HYBRIDS

In the 1930s, America's maize yields were static. With the advent of

hybrids, however, yields doubled and redoubled in just two decades. Maize

quickly became not only a food but a "living factory," yielding feeds, sweeteners,

starch, oil, and myriad industrial raw materials. It rose to such importance that

today the U.S. economy would collapse without it.

Sorghum hybrids have much the same inherent potential, as their brief

history shows. The first was produced only in 1957, but the effect was electric.

Within 4 years, almost all American sorghum growers had switched, and the

mean yield nationwide more than doubled from

Information from F.R. Miller.

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Texas. Field of hybrid sorghum. America's grain-sorghum production more than quadrupled between the early 1950s and the late 1960s, due

primarily to higher productivity resulting from hybrids. (A.B. Maunder, courtesy DeKalb Plant Genetics)

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1,280 kg per hectare to 2,750 kg per hectare. Within 10 years, as the hybrids

improved, the yield had more than tripled to reach 3,810 kg per hectare. In a little

over 20 years it had almost quadrupled to reach 4,190 kg per hectare. Seldom has

there been such a rapid increase in grain yields in a cereal crop.

The hybrids were developed by crossing sorghums from southern Africa (the

so-called kafir type) with others from Central Africa (caudatum types). The

benefits come both from the hybrid vigor (which results when widely divergent

strains of an organism are crossbred) and from the fact that the plant's heightened

potentials and profits encouraged farmers to apply fertilizers and pesticides.

Hybrids have produced quantum jumps in production in India and Latin

America as well, but so far, except in the Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa,

they are uncommon in Africa itself. In most of East Africa, for instance, only

5-10 percent of the crop is in the form of hybrids or other improved varieties, and

in West Africa the percentage is even lower. This is not unexpected. Occasional

U.S. hybrids, such as NK 300, prove productive over a wide range of conditions

in Africa, but most do not. Also, most U.S. hybrids were developed for stock-feed

and their grains make poor-quality foods. In addition, they lack the necessary

resistance to striga, a parasitic plant unknown in most sorghum-growing areas of

the United States.

These days, however, hybrids that produce food-quality grain are coming

available. Moreover, it would appear that the problems of poor adaptability and

striga resistance will be overcome. On the face of it, then, hybrid sorghums

produced for sale rather than for subsistence should play a big role in Africa's

future agriculture.

Of course, hybrids are not without drawbacks. They perform best under good

production conditions and good quality control. They are suited only to sites

where seeds and other materials can be readily delivered. (Farmers must purchase

fresh seed for each planting.) Further, it has been found in Nigeria that during the

rainy season the male-sterile plants used in making the hybrid seed are vulnerable

to ergot.

Some observers believe that problems such as these make hybrid sorghum

appropriate for only a small part of Africa. This may be true, but as the following

sections show, there are reasons for thinking that large-scale, efficient,

productive, and very profitable sorghum production can indeed become a major

part of Africa's agriculture mix.

This fungal disease infects empty florets. It can be overcome by producing seed under

irrigation during the dry season but, at least in West Africa, the areas where this is

practical are limited.

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Honduran Hybrids

The fact that sorghum hybrids can eventually benefit Africa and other

regions is suggested by recent experiences in Central America, where a special

kind of hybrid has been developed for peasant farmers.

Farmers in Honduras have in recent decades planted more than 60,000

hectares of sorghum, but harvested less than 1,000 kg of grain per hectare—the

lowest yield in Central America. This may not be surprising considering that

more than 90 percent is grown on marginal land and the varieties are nondescript

landraces (locally called maicillos criollos).

These "mixed-breed" strains of unknown ancestry are low yielding,

monstrously tall (3-5 m), and late maturing. On face value they should be

replaced. However, the farmers resist. As with peasants everywhere, yield is not

their top priority. The diverse "mongrels" are preferred because they are

dependable. Also, they mature later than maize so that farmers growing the two

crops together have time to harvest both conveniently.

But now a big change is beginning. Now researchers have crossbred

maicillos criollos with elite germplasm from overseas.

This has produced new,

souped-up forms of the traditional types, called maicillos mejorados (improved

indigenous varieties) or maicillos enanos (dwarf indigenous varieties). They are

still basically the dependable, convenient types of old, but the new genes have

reduced their height, improved their disease resistance, and increased their

yields.

These slightly renovated rustic relicts, still retaining the qualities that

farmers value, have broken through the yield plateau that for years strangled

greater sorghum production. Improved maicillos (the word means "little maize"

and reflects the fact that sorghum and maize are not too distantly related) yield

24-58 percent more than their ancestors, even when little or no fertilizer is

applied.

A second phase is now beginning. It involves hybrids made by crossing two

local landraces. Although hybrid sorghums have been known for four decades,

they have previously been made by crossing only elite parents. Honduras is

unique in using the local "mongrels" as parents. For purposes of producing the

necessary hybrid seed to sell to farmers, researchers there have created dwarf

lines that can be mechanically harvested using combines. In trials throughout

Honduras the resulting maicillos hybrids have outyielded the traditional landraces

by 100 percent. Some have produced 6,000 kg per hectare under dryland

conditions. The plants are taller than their dwarfed parents

The elite materials were from Texas A&M University and ICRISAT and mainly

comprised types developed in the Sorghum Conversion Project. The maicillos criollos

were collected throughout Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

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(because of complementary height genes), and they can still be used in the

traditional maize/sorghum intercropping system.

Unlike other new technologies that tend to benefit the affluent and

progressive farmers most,

hybrid maicillos are targeted for the poor and less

venturesome. They provide an alternative that may increase yields on perhaps

235,000 hectares throughout Central America. Cost to the farmer? Negligible,

according to the researchers involved. The seed needed to plant a hectare (when

cropped with maize) costs no more than a chicken or two, or about a third of the

cost of a bag of fertilizer.

"Vybrids"

The criticism most commonly aimed at any hybrid crop proposed for poor

farmers is that its seed is worthless for replanting. The fact that farmers must

purchase new seed each year is often seen as a disastrous financial burden. Much

of the criticism has been overemphasized.

However, in many developing

countries logistical logjams and supply bottlenecks do make it difficult to produce

hybrid seed and get it to the farmers on time and in good condition.

With sorghums, however, there is a distant possibility of having the best of

both worlds—to grow hybrids that also produce seed that can be planted. These

so-called "viable hybrids" or "vybrids" are not yet available, but a few sorghum

researchers are hot on their trail.

Vybrids are made possible by the fact that certain rare sorghums are

apomictic—they produce offspring without the male and female gametes fusing.

In other words, their seed arises from a nonfertilized nucleus, and for this reason

each plant produces progeny genetically identical to itself. This special clonal

propagation through seed retains the benefits of hybrid performance while not

requiring a highly developed industry to produce and distribute seed each year.

The theoretical possibility of producing viable hybrids in crops was

discussed as early as the 1930s. Nearly 60 years later, the various

Information from D.H. Meckenstock.

Although this is a widespread belief, it seems to be true mainly in the initial phase.

After a new technology is established, all farmers—even the poorest—eventually benefit.

In fact, despite much rhetoric to the contrary, the poor farmers of Asia benefited more from

the Green Revolution than the rich ones—they got life itself when the widely predicted

famines never materialized.

For example, no hybrid can survive in the marketplace unless its improved

performance and the farmer's increased income far outweigh the cost and bother of

purchasing seed. Also, experience in India and in Africa is showing that farmers are fully

prepared to pay as long as the cost is justified by the hybrid's performance. In addition, it

takes very little sorghum seed to plant a hectare. Compared to maize, the cost should be

much less.

This, too, is often overemphasized. Hybrid maize is a success in Kenya and Ghana,

for example. However, getting good seed to the right place and on time is likely to remain a

real constraint in most African nations, at least in the near term.

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SORGHUM BEER

In Africa, as in many parts of the world, brewing uses vast amounts of

grain. However, in Africa the raw materials are sorghum, maize, pearl

millet, and finger millet, not barley, rice, or wheat. Also, the basic process is

unique. African brewing includes a lactic-acid fermentation, known as

souring. And the resulting beverage is something like a fermenting gruel

and has the consistency of malted milk.

Normally called "sorghum beer" or "opaque beer," this drink already

constitutes a considerable part of the diet in many areas, and it will likely

become an ever bigger commodity. With so many people moving into the

cities, it is even now shifting from an exclusively family enterprise to an

industrialized one. In South Africa, for instance, sorghum-beer brewing is

already a highly specialized industry. Annual production is about one billion

liters.

Malting is the first step in brewing this or any type of beer. The grain is

soaked and left to germinate. This activates amylases and other enzymes

that hydrolyze the grain's starch and proteins to sugars and amino acids.

After several days, when germination is complete, the sprouted grains are

dried, ground to a coarse powder, mixed with cold water, and added to a

preparation of ground-up grain that previously has been steeped in boiling

water.* The enzymes continue working, this time turning the new source of

starch into sugar. The souring process also takes place as bacteria act on

part of the sugars to form lactic acid. The product—a thin gruel called

"sweet wort"—may be drunk after less than a day. Its alcoholic content is

negligible, but it contains some B vitamins and it is often given to children.

If the brewing is continued, various yeasts multiply, and within a day or

so fermentation begins. This produces alcohol, B vitamins, new proteins,

and more lactic acid. The resulting brew is normally drunk after 4 or 5 days.

Suspended particles of starch, yeast, grain, and malt give it the

characteristic milky body. High acidity (resulting from the lactic acid)

prevents the growth of pathogenic microorganisms.

Brewing raises the nutritional value of sorghum. It adds vitamins,

neutralizes most of the tannins, hydrolyzes the starch to more digestible

forms, and increases the availability of minerals and vitamins. South African

studies indicate that iron is 12 times more available in sorghum beer than in a

boiled sorghum gruel; riboflavin may be almost twice and thiamine almost a

third more available; niacin's availability remains unchanged. In principle, 2

liters of

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sorghum beer could supply a person's daily requirement for thiamine

and riboflavin and 40 percent of the requirement for niacin. However, many

of these B vitamins are locked up in the yeast cells and cannot be digested

unless the beer is first boiled. Unfortunately, this is seldom done.

Special varieties of sorghum are maintained for their brewing qualities.

In many places, the dark brown grains are prized. Their most important

characteristic is their high level of amylase activity. They have considerable

potential as substitutes for barley, even for brewing lager-type (European-

style) beers. Nigeria already uses them this way, at least on a semi-

commercial scale.

Recently in South Africa, the Council for Scientific and Industrial

Research (CSIR) developed three shelf-stable brewed-sorghum products: a

pasteurized bottled beer, an aseptically packed still beer, and a wort

concentrate that can be diluted and fermented to produce beer. These are

safe to transport, and can be distributed to remote areas or even exported.

In South Africa, sorghum beer is the basis of a giant company that was

formerly part of a government monopoly but has now been spun off to

African entrepreneurs with amazing success (see box, page 305).

The beer is more than a mere drink. As one writer has stated: "The

whole social system of the people is inextricably linked up with this popular

beverage: the first essential in all festivities, the one incentive to labor, the

first thought in dispensing hospitality, the favorite tribute of subjects to their

chief and almost the only votive offering dedicated to the spirits. Beer is a

common means of exchange or payment for services rendered, and in

times of plenty it is not only freely consumed, but often is the principal or

sole food of many men for days on end. It is evident in all ritual and

ceremonial occasions binding together different groups or individuals and

affecting a reconciliation when things go wrong. With most tribes, harvest

thanksgiving takes the form of beer, preceded by an offering of beer to the

ancestors of the chief."

* Grain for this purpose is usually sorghum or maize, but other grains and even banana are

also widely employed. The boiling water gelatinizes the starch, rendering it readily

hydrolyzable by the malt amylase enzymes.

These beers are safer to drink than water because, at consumption, their pH is between 3

and 4, an acidity level at which no common pathogenic microorganisms grow. However,

sorghum beer is not immune to spoilage; acetic-acid-producing bacteria (as in wine) can

quickly turn it to vinegar.

Information from John R.N. Taylor, Brewing and Beverage Program, CSIR.

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attempts at producing them have resulted in some progress. One notable

success has been in breeding buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris)—a native African

species, distantly related to sorghum, that is used as a forage throughout the

tropics. Another has been with forage grasses of the genus Dichanthium

(Bothriochloa).

Work on sorghum apomixis has now reached the stage where apomicts and

vybrids from crosses between them have been formed in research facilities. The

scientists are confident that the vybrids can now be developed for farm use.

Vybrids will benefit more than farmers. For sorghum breeders of all stripes,

vybrids offer exciting potential. Sexual types can be used in the normal way to

develop hybrids with superior characteristics and then induced into apomictic

forms that will retain the new qualities, generation after generation, from then on.

STRIGA-RESISTANT TYPES

One of the tragedies facing Africa is that a parasitic plant is cutting it off

from the wealth of sorghums that have been, or are being, developed in a score of

countries overseas. Indeed, striga is probably the greatest constraint to the

production of foreign sorghums in Africa itself.

Recently, however, researchers have discovered a striga-resistant gene in

sorghum. This could be a big breakthrough. For Africa, it will help open the door

to the truly remarkable types developed in the Americas and China, for instance.

This topic is treated in Appendix A. It is made suddenly more relevant

because a new test has been developed that can determine, within a few days,

whether a certain sorghum (or other species) is resistant to striga. Tests in

laboratories and greenhouses have been most encouraging. Should these results

also prove practical in the field, it could open the way for overcoming the

depredations of this vegetative parasite that victimizes desperately needed food

plants. For the first time the crops will have the means to defend themselves.

DWARFS

The last 40 years have seen dramatic increases in the yields of wheat, rice,

maize, and some other cereals. This has come not from boosting the plants'

overall growth (as most people may think), but from rearranging their

architectures so that the plants are shorter. With less energy going into stalk, more

is left for growing grain. In

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Sorghum researcher, Gebisa Ejeta, examines experimental plots of strigatolerant

cultivar SRN-39 (left) and local cultivars in Niger. The pernicious parasite

occurs only among the striga-susceptible local type (right). Striga-tolerance has

been known in India and East Africa, but SRN-39 is one of the first examples of a

sorghum that can withstand the West African striga species. For more

information on striga and the problems it causes, see Appendix A. page 276. (D.

Rosenow)

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SORGHUM'S MIRACULOUS CONVERSION

At first glance, sorghum seems almost impossibly diverse. Seed banks

hold more than 25,000 samples, all distinct and all able to produce fertile

intercrosses. How to extract from the myriad combinations the particular

ones most useful worldwide is a monumental problem that might seem

beyond the realm of reason. However, remarkable progress is already being

made, thanks to a project that exemplifies how many of the cereals in this

book might be advanced in the future.

In the 1950s, U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Joseph Stevens

developed a "blueprint" for systematically enhancing the genetic base of the

world's sorghum crop. Along with several colleagues in the United States

and India, he began assembling, evaluating, characterizing, and classifying

a base collection of sorghum samples. This collaborative effort was carried

out in India and continued into the early 1960s. The Indian government, as

well as dozens of African and Asian countries, contributed their germplasm

and support. Eventually, about 11,000 different sorghums were on hand.

As a first step in sorting useful genetic materials out of the vast sorghum

collection, a unique "shuttle-breeding" procedure was devised. The

breeders produced and grew a first generation of random crossbreeds in

the tropics (mainly at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) where the days are short.

They collected seeds from a wide range of the most desirable looking

progeny and took them to a temperate zone (Texas) where days are long

during the growing season. There, the seeds were grown out and a new

generation of seeds were gathered again from the most promising

specimens. This dual-latitude screening ensured that the resulting seeds

(and their subsequent generations) could grow and produce grain under

both tropical and temperate conditions.

The next step was to partially refine these genetically diverse

populations. Again, a wide array of different specimens were grown and the

most desirable selected, this time emphasizing short stature and early

maturity. The final result was a cornucopia of various sorghums—all broadly

adaptable to various daylengths, all short in stature, and all early maturing.

Out of the myriad tall, slow, and sensitive types, suitable only for small

farms in the tropics, have come universally useful types for use throughout

the world, on any scale.

Although the resulting plants were selected for basic qualities,

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they were deliberately kept diverse. Now, that welter of gene types is

being fine-tuned to meet the specialized demands of dozens of different

localities. Specific characteristics now being ''custom-designed" include:

• Resistance to disease (downy mildew, striga, anthracnose, and smuts)

• Resistance to insects (aphids, midges, worms, shootfly, and others)

• Resistance to stressful conditions (drought, heat, soil acidity, and

salinity)

• Strong stalks (to stop the plants breaking or falling over in wet soil)

• Nonsenescence (to keep plants green and functional, even under stress)

• Twin-seed (making both florets in the grain-producing spikelet fertile)

• Easy threshing

• Erect leaves (to increase the amount of sunlight intercepted)

• Higher yield (more grains of good size in each seedhead)

• Greater root development (to help the plants withstand stresses)

• Faster grain filling (to reduce danger from drought and insects)

• Resistance to weathering (seeds that do not soften)

• Light colors (to make the most widely acceptable food products)

• Increased protein content (more than 10 percent)

• Superior amino-acid balance (high lysine, in particular)

• Improved flavor

• Greater digestibility

• Expanded diversity for food products (notably specialty types for

convenience foods)

Materials from the sorghum conversion program are already helping

transform this formerly obscure and often scorned grain into a major

contributor to world food supplies. Indeed, their seeds have become

cornerstones for much of the present rise in sorghum production worldwide.

All in all, the Sorghum Conversion Program has become one of the

most successful plant-breeding programs ever; a model of achievement for

crop scientists everywhere and with every crop. It provides populations that

are reservoirs of genes, rather than a single, highly inbred variety.

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technical terms, this is called raising the "harvest index." Thus, 50 years ago

wheat had a harvest index of 32 percent; now it can be as much as 48 percent in

some cultivars. In other words, almost half of the weight of the plant (above

ground) is now grain.

Moreover, reducing the height makes the plants less likely to get top-heavy

and blow over in a summer storm. In addition, the squat, strong plants are more

able to benefit from fertilizer, which otherwise would make them spindly and

top-heavy. And dwarfing not only boosts yields: wherever mechanical harvesting

is practiced, short stature means that the seedheads can be efficiently captured by

combine harvesters so that larger areas can be planted.

So far, only a few of the world's sorghums have had their architecture

refashioned in this way. Nonetheless, an increasing number of short-stalked

sorghums that mature at an even height and can be harvested by combine are

becoming available. Most have been created in North America. Indeed, all of

America's commercial grain types are now dwarfs.

Initially, sorghums in the United States were tall and had a harvest index of

21 or 22 percent (about the same as in the spindly subsistence types now grown in

West Africa), but careful selection, followed by intensive breeding, has reduced

the internode length. Now the harvest index for many improved types used in the

United States, Mexico, and Argentina is 48-52 percent, as high as that of wheat.

Dwarf sorghums have also been created at research stations in Zambia.

These local dwarfs, as well as those from overseas, could eventually usher in a

new era for the continent.

CONVENIENCE FOODS

As has been noted, commercial sorghum's major problem in Africa is that

markets for flour and foods are undeveloped. If this were overcome, a large and

healthy trade between a country's own sorghum farmers and its cities could

operate to everyone's benefit. Today, ever-increasing numbers of city folk are

being weaned onto wheat-flour bread and white rice, and any resulting economic

benefits go mostly to farmers and traders a world away. The tragedy is that many

of the city dwellers, especially newcomers, are accustomed to sorghum foods and

would continue to purchase them if they could.

It is not inconceivable that Africa could produce vast amounts of sorghum

flour and sorghum-based processed foods for sale in the cities

Information from S. Carr. Dwarf types have also been introduced in West Africa but,

so far at least, have performed poorly.

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and towns (see Appendix B). This could result in opportunities for much

innovation.

More than 30 years ago, for example, South African researchers developed a

precooked sorghum product. They slurried raw sorghum flour with water and

passed it through a hot roller that both cooked and dried it. The product proved

very palatable and would keep for at least 3 months without deteriorating. Whole

milk or skim milk could be used in place of water, producing a tasty flour rich in

protein, calcium, and phosphorus. Processing costs reportedly were low.

This is just one of many approaches by which sorghum might be produced

for urbanized peoples. Many recipes using milled sorghum grits or flour have

already been developed and tested by several universities.

And the recent

development of parboiled products from sorghum could open up even more

markets that could benefit millions of Africa's farmers (see Appendix B).

Coetzee and Perold, 1958.

These include the Home Economics Department at the University of Nairobi and the

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University (see Research Contacts).

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Sorghum: Specialty Types

Sorghum's range of genetic diversity is truly amazing. Some types look so

abnormal that until recently they were classified as separate species. However, all

of them cross readily with one another, all have a chromosome complement of 2n =

20, and all are recognized today as variants of the same plant, Sorghum bicolor.

Many of the unusual types are promising resources in their own right. Some

have properties and uses quite unexpected of a cereal. A few hold out the

possibility of producing far better grains than those of today's major sorghums.

Others could provide entirely new types of sorghum foods. Yet others can yield

feed, forage, fertilizer, fiber, fuel, sugar, and raw materials for factories of many

kinds. In this array of plant types, the vast potential of this remarkable species can

be seen. Examples of promising, but little-known, food types are discussed

below.

POPPING SORGHUMS

In parts of Africa and Asia, sorghums that pop like popcorn can be found.

These have seldom received much scientific or entrepreneurial recognition. There

is probably, however, a huge latent market for them. They make tasty foods, and

they may have worldwide promise. Popping boosts the flavor of sorghum, and it

is energy efficient and nutritionally desirable. (Compared with boiling, for

instance, popping is so rapid that it takes little fuel and it denatures or hydrolyzes

the proteins and vitamins only slightly.)

Popped sorghum is already a favorite in central India, and it is starting to

find favor in several other countries as well. In India, people

Synonyms include Sorghum vulgare (for the entire species complex) and Sorghum

caffrorum, Sorghum caudatum, Sorghum conspicuum, Sorghum arundinaceum, Sorghum

dochna, and Sorghum durra (for what are now considered subspecies, or "races"). There

are hundreds of common names. Those in widespread use include: guinea corn, jowar

(India), kaoliang (China), kafir corn, milo (United States), sorgho, and maicillo (Central

America).

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sprinkle a handful of dry grain onto a bed of hot sand or a hot sheet of metal. The

popped kernels are brushed off as they form. Most are consumed by school

children as a snack. They may be balled with crude sugar (jaggery). They may

also be pounded into a nutty-flavored flour, which is typically mixed with milk

and sugar, buttermilk, salt, or chilies.

A world collection of sorghums is maintained at ICRISAT. Of 3,682

accessions tested, 36 have shown good popping qualities. Most originated in

India. These could be the starting point for breeding popping sorghums on a

scientific basis. Indeed, they could create a new and very tasty food that could

quickly establish itself in most of the 30 or more nations that grow sorghum as a

staple—not to mention in at least that many more nations that now look on

sorghum as "barely fit for cattle."

As with popcorn, the best popping types usually have small grains with a

dense, "glassy" (corneous) endosperm that traps steam until the pressure builds to

explosive levels.

VEGETABLE SORGHUMS

In certain countries, sorghum is eaten like sweet corn. The whole seedhead

(panicle) is harvested while the grain is still soft (dough stage). It is roasted over

open coals, and the soft, sweet seeds make a very pleasant food. These strains are

found notably in Maharashtra, India. Like sweet corn, they have sugary

endosperms containing 30 percent glycogen as well as grains that shrivel when

dry. They are a treat for anyone.

This unique method turns sorghum into a vegetable crop—more like

broccoli than like barley. It has so far received little or no serious study from

scientists, but it could be a powerful way to capitalize on the plant's ability to

produce food in sites where most crops fail. The types that perform this way

should be collected, compared, and cultivated in trials. The traditional processes

by which they are used should be analyzed, as should the nutritional value.

Seedheads in the dough stage may have a better-than-expected food value.

VITAMIN-A SORGHUM

In some developing countries a lack of vitamin A in the daily diet blinds

many children. However, certain sorghums with yellow grains

Even popcorn was neglected until quite recently. Although it has long been a popular

treat in the United States, only in the last 10 years—since microwave ovens made it

convenient for the home and office—have modern breeding techniques been applied in

force. Sales have since skyrocketed. The increasing popularity of microwave ovens could

also boost the use of popping sorghums.

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may solve the problem, at least among sorghum-eating societies. The color comes

from xanthophyll and from the carotene pigments that are vitamin-A precursors.

People eating them have a better-than-normal production of vitamin A.

Yellow sorghums are especially well known in Nigeria but probably can be

found elsewhere, too. The carotene levels are typically only a fraction of those

normally found in yellow maize. However, because of poverty or locality,

sorghum eaters often have no chance to vary their diets. Yellow varieties may be

the most practical way to protect their eyesight.

TANNIN-FREE SORGHUMS

Some sorghum types contain invidious ingredients that "lock up" protein and

starch so that a person's body cannot fully get at them. Traditionally, these

ingredients have been called "tannins," although strictly speaking, this is not an

exact term.

Many sorghums, especially those now grown in East Africa, are high in

tannins. To a large extent they have been deliberately selected because birds

hardly touch them (see Appendix A). These birds include the quelea—a small,

rather nondescript weaverbird that has replaced the locust as the most serious

pest of small-grain crops in parts of Africa. This voracious seed-eater may well

be the most abundant bird species on earth, and its importance as a pest has

increased in recent years despite all the control operations that have been

mounted against it.

Today, people can eat the dark-seeded sorghums only if the tannins are first

removed. There are two approaches for getting around this. One is to use the

seeds in processes that neutralize tannins—making beer or fermenting the grain

with wood ash are examples.

The second relies on the fact that the tannins are

located primarily in the grain's outer layer. Milling this off makes the rest of the

grain edible. This is not easy to do, however, and the seemingly endless task of

pounding seeds with heavy poles causes untold hours of daily drudgery

throughout most of rural Africa. Indeed, it is one of the fundamental barriers to

the wider use of this crop (see Appendix B).

Overcoming the tannin problem would open new possibilities for

Recent research has shown that the antinutritional ingredients are more than just the

pigments known as tannins.

Quelea remains a threat to crops in Zimbabwe, for instance, even though more than

521.5 million of them were killed in the country between 1972 and 1987 (an average of

32.6 million a year).

Information on the wood-ash treatment is from G. Graham, who noticed that

campesinos in Peru had developed it as a way to make sorghum more palatable.

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sorghum as a world food grain. Research in the 1980s has demonstrated that the

genes controlling tannin production can be reduced through crossbreeding.

Tannins can be eliminated or at least reduced to negligible quantities. White-

seeded, tannin-free types are known and are particularly promising for the future.

BIRD-RESISTANT SORGHUMS

Removing tannins makes sorghum a far better food for humans, but in parts

of Africa, unfortunately, it would seem also to be good for the birds. However,

some white-seeded types that are both tannin free and shunned by birds are

already available.

Two sorghums that are bird resistant and free of tannin were identified in

1989.

These two genotypes (Ark 1097 and a Brazilian hybrid) were assayed and

found to contain absolutely no tannin throughout the whole time their seeds were

developing. In addition, both showed good bird resistance in trials in Indiana,

USA. In Puerto Rico, where bird pressure is greater, each was damaged, but only

in one of two replications; in the other, it remained untouched. All in all, these

white-seeded, tannin-free genotypes appear to be slightly less bird resistant than

the standard, strongly resistant, high-tannin types. Nonetheless, the level of

resistance was enough that these sorghums can be very useful in areas where bird

damage is normally severe.

The nutritional quality of these two is not yet fully determined, but all

indications are that both are fully comparable to the low-tannin (bird-susceptible)

sorghums. In a feeding trial, for example, laboratory rats grew much faster and

showed more efficient feed utilization than the (high-tannin, bird-resistant)

control. Remarkably, they were even better than the low-tannin types. Indeed,

there were no apparent nutritional problems associated with consuming the grain.

Trials of these sorghums are under way in Kenya.

QUICK-COOKING SORGHUMS

The starches in the grains of most sorghums have gelatinization

temperatures around 70°C. They must reach that temperature to become cooked

and edible. However, research has shown that some sorghums have starches

whose gelatinization temperature is only about 55°C. This can reduce the cooking

time required. These sorghums have waxy kernels (endosperm) rather than hard

vitreous ones. Thus,

Information in this section from L. Butler.

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they cannot always be used in the normal manner. Nonetheless, there is a good

possibility that they will make nontraditional quick-cooking products that will

appeal to many.

These unusual types are found especially in East Asia. The starch in their

grains is entirely amylopectin, rather than amylose and other normal forms.

AROMATIC SORGHUMS

Some sorghums in Sri Lanka and northeastern India are said to have the

aroma of basmati, the fragrant rice preferred by millions of Asians. Although

bland-tasting rice has dominated international markets, the basmati type has

always been tropical Asia's favorite, and it is now increasingly sold worldwide

(even in the United States) as a high-priced specialty. The discovery of sorghum

counterparts opens up similar opportunities. They, too, might become specialty

foods of high value. Also, they might help boost the acceptance of sorghum—

normally the blandest of grains—even where it is a staple.

All in all, flavorful types like these present good opportunities for improving

markets and increasing consumption, not to mention boosting the returns to

farmers.

QUALITY-PROTEIN SORGHUMS

Deep in the misty green valleys of Ethiopia's highlands is hiding a unique

sorghum that, in both nutrition and palatability, far surpasses the thousands of

types found elsewhere.

Ethiopians call these types "milk in my mouth" (wetet begunche) and "honey

squirts out of it" (marchuke). To anyone who has tasted normal, bland, sorghum

flour, the names alone indicate something special. Both varieties produce

somewhat lower yields than normal but everyone likes to eat them. The taste of

roasted marchuke, for instance, has been likened to that of roasted chestnuts.

People gather the grains, roast them over a fire, and pop them down like peanuts.

Both are often used to enhance the flavor of local dishes made from regular

sorghums. The taste comes from the reducing sugars that caramelize as they are

roasted.

Until 1973 these two varieties were restricted to a tiny upland area of north-

central Ethiopia. The growers hid them in the middle of their sorghum fields

(mainly so the landlords wouldn't find out and raise the rents based on the extra

income from these elite types). In 1973, however, researchers analyzing different

sorghums for their food value

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stumbled onto them.

Of 9,000 varieties tested, these two were unique. They

contained 30 percent more protein, but more important, their protein had about

twice the normal level of lysine, an amino acid critical to nutritional quality.

This finding is significant because the more than 500 million people for

whom sorghum is the main source of sustenance are relying on a food that is not

great, nutritionally speaking. Its protein content is modest (averaging about 9

percent), and its protein quality is among the lowest of any cereal—mainly owing

to its dismal lysine level.

In the years since 1973, neither of the two quality-protein sorghums has

fulfilled its promise. There are several reasons for this. Both types produce floury

grains with small and soft endosperms, a feature that makes them more

susceptible to birds, fungi, and insects. More important, however, soft grains are

not favored for traditional purposes. Upon pounding or milling in a machine, they

form a paste rather than a flour. Also, there is not much endosperm there to make a

flour from in the first place.

This fundamental problem with grain type is a big barrier: either a laborious

breeding program is needed to transform the grains into the hard-endosperm form

or people must use the soft form in foods differing from their normal grain-

sorghum fare.

A promising immediate use of these remarkable varieties is as feed. Animals

are less fussy than humans, and lysine-rich feeds, which are particularly necessary

for pigs, are critically short in many places. Fish meal and soybean meal (the

main lysine sources for livestock) are often unavailable or too expensive,

especially in remote Third World areas. High-lysine sorghum with its inbuilt

robustness and drought tolerance could well become a vital feedstuff for northern

China; large, dry areas of the Soviet Union; much of the Middle East; the

semiarid zones of India and Pakistan; substantial portions of Mexico; and other

places that are dry, salty, and lacking in lysine-rich feeds.

Moreover, the single gene responsible for the high lysine may be invaluable

for boosting the quality of conventional sorghums. Researchers at several

research facilities are trying to transfer this gene. They hope to enhance the

nutritional value of normal sorghums without affecting the grain structure or

other important traits.

SORGHOS

Sorghum and sugarcane are fairly closely related, and certain sorghums

(often termed "sorghos") have stems that are just as rich in

The researchers were John Axtell and Rameshwar Singh of Purdue University.

This has been done with a high-lysine maize (see the companion report, Quality

Protein Maize).

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THE SUPER SORGHUM OF THE SUDAN

Although it is perhaps the most important grain in Africa, sorghum still

has tremendous untapped potential. Many remarkable types are yet to be

discovered by science, as the following example shows.

When word leaked out in 1984 that a disastrous famine was impending

in Dafur and Kordofan, the horror that swept the world energized many

people into action. No one took a more original approach than the

organizers of ''Band Aid," a project in which rock and roll stars staged a free

concert for worldwide television. The donations from dozens of countries

then went to help those stricken provinces of the Sudan. Part ended up in a

far-sighted study of sorghum.

With Band Aid funding, David Harper, Omar Salih, and Abdelazim

Nour visited 150 villages in the drought-devastated area, checking on the

people's welfare and gathering samples of the local crops—especially those

that had best survived the drought. A sorghum variety called "Karamaka"

proved to be truly remarkable.

For one thing, Karamaka had a protein that was unusually nutritious. It

had more than the normal amount of protein but, more importantly, its

protein had about twice the nutritional value of other sorghum proteins. Its

lysine content (3.4 percent) was 62 percent above normal, and the other

essential amino acids were not diminished to any significant extent. As a

result, Karamaka protein had a chemical score of 62 rather than the 30-40

figure of regular sorghum protein. Its nutritional value was therefore almost

two-thirds that of milk protein, the usual standard of protein perfection.

For another, Karamaka grain possessed an unusual combination of

carbohydrates, containing less starch and much more sugar than normal.

Indeed, the total sugars in the grain amounted to 35 percent. The individual

sugars were composed of both sucrose and reducing sugars, but the

sucrose level alone was approximately twice normal.

The ultimate star of the Band Aid concerts may be this drought-tolerant

crop, whose palatability and protein might lead sorghum into a new era of

significance for feeding the world at large. Karamaka not only foiled the

famine, it proved a nutritional gem, on a par with the best quality cereals.*

* More information is available from D. Harper (see Research Contacts).

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sugar as sugarcane's. These sweet sorghums are surprisingly poorly known

compared with sugarcane and sugar beet. Nonetheless, they have a big potential

in a world increasingly in need of renewable sources of energy (see next

chapter). Also, as food crops they deserve more attention.

Unlike sugarcane, sweet sorghum grows in a wide geographic range. It can

be considered "the sugarcane of the drier and temperate zones." It has a

production capacity equal or superior to sugarcane's, at least when considered on a

monthly basis.

Two types have been developed by breeders:

• Syrup sorghums, which contain enough fructose to prevent crystallization;

and

• Sugar sorghums, which contain mostly sucrose and crystallize readily.

RICELIKE SORGHUMS

The shallu type of sorghum (the margaritifera subrace of the guinea race)

has small, white, vitreous seeds, which are boiled like rice.

As of today, little or

nothing is known about this interesting form of sorghum, but it could have a good

future and deserves exploratory research.

TRANSPLANT SORGHUMS10

In certain regions of semiarid West Africa, various special sorghums are

transplanted like rice. These are used particularly by peoples living in the bend of

the Niger, including parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Little is known about these. However, transplant sorghums are produced in

the dry season—growing and maturing entirely on subsoil moisture. They are

ephemerals that must get through their life cycle before the soil dries back to

powder or pavement. They must mature quickly to survive. Some can produce a

crop in 90 days—merely half the time the rainfed types require in that area.

One fascinating example has been identified at Gao in northern Mali. It is

cultivated by ex-nomad Tuareg, and yields more than 1,000 kg per hectare on

residual moisture from the runoff water remaining after light rains.

Two others

are masakwa and moskwaris.

Information from J. Harlan.

Information largely from R.K. Vogler.

Information from J. DeVries.

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These dry-season sorghums have special traits including:

• Large, hard, high-quality grains, locally considered special delicacies;

• Heat tolerance at the seedling stage;

• Drought resistance or tolerance; and

• Ability to flourish on residual moisture in heavy clay soil.

Transplant sorghums grow only on clay pans with a high water table. They

are often cultivated on vertisols, which are among the world's most refractory and

frustrating soils to deal with. Wet, these soils become soft, sticky, and plastic;

dry, they become iron hard and deeply cracked. At least once a year they go from

one extreme to the other. Few plants can withstand the trauma. For all that,

however, vertisols have high fertility. Any crop that can perform in such

recalcitrant sites could be a boon to several parts of the tropics that are now

languishing for lack of a crop suited to vertisols. Transplant sorghums therefore

deserve international attention.

The yields from transplant sorghums depend on the amount of moisture

stored in the soil, but are relatively high by the standards of the very difficult sites

where they are grown. (Their high yields probably result from the fertility of the

swamp clays.)

These transplant types apparently are uniquely adapted to the unusual

conditions of inundated clays and perhaps are unsuited to dry or infertile soils.

FREE-THRESHING SORGHUMS

Despite general opinion, some sorghums thresh easily. The heads hold onto

the seeds during the harvest as well as during drying and transport; however, the

farmer can separate the seeds from the heads with hardly more effort than is used

to thresh wheat or rice. For example, the sorghum variety called "Rio" has an

"easy thresh" characteristic. Another variety line being used currently in U.S.

breeding programs is SC599. It is both free threshing and tolerant of drought in

the post-flowering stage.

The term "free threshing" is also applied to the involute glumes of some

West African guinea sorghums. Their seeds are completely exposed and they

easily thresh completely free of the glumes.

Information from F.R. Miller. The glumes (chaffy bracts) in these free-threshing

types cover about 30 percent of the seed.

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SORGHUM COMES TO AMERICA

Sorghum has been in the United States for a long time. The grain types

commonly called "guinea corn" and "chicken corn" were introduced from

West Africa at least two centuries ago. Both were probably packed as

provisions on slave ships and reached the New World only inadvertently.

Americans first grew these grains along the Atlantic coast but later took the

crop westward where it found a better home in the drier regions. Later-

arriving grain types include some that were deliberately introduced by

seedsmen and scientists towards the end of the 1800s. By 1900, sorghum

grain was well established in the southern Great Plains and in California;

indeed, it had become an important resource in areas too hot and too

droughty for maize (see page 160).

The sorghum known as "broomcorn" was supposedly first cultivated in

the United States by Benjamin Franklin. He is said to have started the

industry in 1797 with seeds he picked off an imported broom. The stiff

bristles that rise from the plant's flower head have produced many of

America's brooms and brushes ever since (see page 209). By the 1930s,

for example, American farmers were cultivating 160,000 hectares of

broomcorn.

The so-called "sweet" sorghum, with its sugar-filled stems, reached

these shores in about the mid-1800s. It landed first in the Southern states

—supposedly introduced as a cheap treat for slaves. Within 50 years,

however, it had spread so widely and become so popular that sorghum was

known as ''the sugar of the South." Each locality in the Southern farm belt

had a mill to crush sorghum stalks. The resulting syrup, a little thinner than

molasses, became the sweetener of the region: poured over pancakes,

added to cakes, and everywhere employed in candies and preserves.

Today, this golden liquid is not so well known, but many rural communities

still hold annual sorghum festivals and crude old mills squeeze out an

estimated 120 million liters of syrup each year.

Sudangrass was introduced in 1909. This form of "grass sorghum" is

now used for animal feed throughout the nation's warmer regions (see page

211).

A scene in the backhills of North Carolina. Sugar sorghum has all but disappeared from

commercial cultivation in the United States, but it is still grown on a small scale, mostly for

home use. The thin greenish liquid squeezed out of the stalks is boiled down into sorghum

molasses, thinner in consistency than sugarcane molasses, but lighter in color —an almost

transparent golden shade. (P. Mask)

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SORGHUM IN CHINA

In China, sorghum is amazingly popular. In the northern parts,

especially, millions of villagers consider kaoliang a part of everyday living.

Many employ every part of the plant—from top to bottom.

Grains. For millions of Chinese, sorghum is a daily staple. The grains

are eaten at perhaps every meal. Certain types of waxy grains are baked

into cakes. Other types are fermented and distilled into strong spirits. To

connoisseurs, China's best liquors are those made from sorghum—the

famous (or infamous) maotai and samshu, for example. Certain grains,

particularly the darker-colored varieties, are vital for feeding horses,

donkeys, and other livestock.

Seedheads. In some varieties, the empty heads are converted into

brooms and brushes.

Stalks. Sweet-stemmed sorghums are a major source of sugar to

millions of Chinese. Some are also harvested green and cut up like

sugarcane batons. (Children are particularly fond of chewing on them.) The

stalks of more woody varieties are bound together, cemented with clay, and

used for partitions and walls and fences. The supple green stems are split

and woven into baskets and fine matting. The strong dry stems are widely

used in making handicrafts and many types of small household utensils,

including plate-holders and pot covers. Sorghum stalk is, moreover, a

favorite for making children's toys and many types of containers. (Sorghum

cages are used to keep pet birds and insects, for example.) In some

places, woody sorghum stems are the basic fuel for cooking.

Leaves. In parts of China the leaves are frequently removed before the

grain harvest and used for fodder. They are vital for raising cattle, goats,

horses, and rabbits.

Roots. The roots are grubbed out and dried for fuel.

All this is not just an ancient traditional practice. In modern China,

hybrid sorghum has played a vital role in increasing food supplies. These

days, sorghum is a high-yield crop—both for grains and for stems. In sum,

the experiences in China demonstrate just how universally valuable this

African grain can become.

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CHINESE SORGHUMS

All sorghums are indigenous to Africa, but the plant reached Asia so long

ago that thousands of cultivars developed there. Indeed, the Far East devotes a

huge area to this crop. It is especially surprising to find this tropical crop in chilly

climes as far north as Manchuria. Throughout northern China, however, farmers

rely on sorghum not only to keep themselves fed when wheat fails but also for

many of their household needs (see box opposite). Even when wheat is available,

the people often eat a cheap and rather coarse sorghum bread. Special steamed

breads are made from sorghum in some areas. Sorghum also goes into noodles,

porridges, and boiled (ricelike) dishes. A significant proportion is used to produce

strong liquor. Sorghum is also eaten, although to a lesser extent, in Japan.

China contains a cornucopia of types that are unknown elsewhere. The Flora

of Chinese Sorghum Varieties, for example, lists more than 1,000 local varieties:

980 for food, 50 for industrial use, and 14 for sugar. All of these should be rapidly

gathered and tested elsewhere in the world. They undoubtedly offer many genetic

benefits. Eventually, they and their genes may become critical to human survival

in many areas outside China.

Reuniting the genes of these Far Eastern types with those of Africa after a

2,000-year separation could be an extremely powerful genetic intervention

leading to a whole new line of "Chinaf" hybrids.

COLD-TOLERANT SORGHUM

When CIMMYT first tried growing sorghum in the Valley of Mexico, the

crop would not set seed. The problem was low temperatures at night. The

researchers then got some high-elevation sorghums from Ethiopia, made crosses,

and now have types adapted for that upland valley with its chilly nights. Cold

tolerance is available in the germplasm but has not yet been fully exploited.

HEAT-SHOCK SORGHUM

Sorghum thrives under searing conditions. Air temperatures of 45°C leave it

unfazed. Even at that temperature, young plants have been known to grow 20

percent in height in a single day. But sorghum has its limits. When soil

temperatures climb above 50°C, its seedlings struggle to survive. Such

temperatures are not uncommon at the soil surface in semiarid areas, and the

consequences for sorghum farmers are often dire, sometimes even disastrous.

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Now, researchers at ICRISAT have found that certain sorghums withstand

heat better than others. No one has paid attention to this quality before, and

almost all of today's sorghums produce seedlings susceptible to burning hot soils.

By sowing seed in hot fields and seeing which survived, lines with heat-

tolerant seedlings have been identified. But such tests are expensive, time-

consuming, and subject to hosts of uncertainties. Now, researchers at the Welsh

Plant Breeding Station

are devising mass-screening techniques that can be

performed in a laboratory and with much more precision.

One Welsh technique, already adopted by ICRISAT, monitors the amount of

protein synthesized by the germinating seeds. In hot surroundings, the most

heat-tolerant types produce the most protein. However, this test is expensive and

cumbersome to run on thousands of samples, so now the Welsh researchers are

developing a second-generation test based on "heat-shock proteins" (HSPs).

All living things make HSPs when exposed to temperatures above their

normal range. They do it quickly—often within 15 minutes. Once made, the

proteins—which are similar in plants, animals, and bacteria—seem to confer an

ability to prosper in the heat. Their exact function is still uncertain, but they may

protect the organism's proteins, messenger RNA, or membranes from damage.

One HSP—often called HSP70 because it has a relative molecular mass of

70,000—may ensure that heat-damaged proteins regain their proper shape so that

they can continue working as enzymes, muscles, and antibodies.

The researchers now have found that briefly exposing a sorghum seedling to

temperatures between 40°C and 45°C induces it to produce a characteristic set of

HSPs. From then on, the plant can tolerate temperatures of 50°C or even more

without suffering damage.

Although all sorghum seedlings make HSPs, those that tolerate heat best

make HSPs much sooner after germinating. Speed is the secret of their success.

This response is being studied in the hope of finding an easily recognizable

feature that can identify heat tolerance without torturing the seeds. If successful,

this will open the way to mass screening so that farmers in the hottest areas will

no longer face the heartbreak of seeing their fields wilting in the blazing sun

before the plants have even grown more than knee-high.

Another approach is to find the regions of the chromosomes which are

important for survival of heat stress. DNA probes are being used as markers by

the researchers in Wales to follow regions of the chromosomes linked to the

thermotolerance trait from parents to subsequent generations.

Led by Cathy Howarth and Chris Pollock.

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TROPICAL SORGHUMS

A few sorghums grow in the humid lowland tropics. Although they are not

well studied, the guineense and other related groups (roxburghii and conspicuum,

for example) could be useful as genetic sources for improvement of genotypes

for humid tropical regions.

WILD SORGHUMS

At least two undomesticated forms show extremely robust growth under the

harshest of conditions.

One, the verticiliflorum form (previously known as Sorghum

verticiliflorum) is a wild grass, distributed from the Sudan to South Africa. It is

often found in damp areas (along stream banks and irrigation ditches, for

example) or as a weed in cultivated fields. On the other hand, it is also a

dominant climax species in many of the area's dry, tall-grass savannas. It is

thought to be a progenitor of the modern bicolor, caudatum, and kafir races of

sorghum but has seldom been considered a genetic resource in its own right.

Nonetheless, in research now under way, this plant is proving extremely useful in

forage-breeding programs. No doubt it contains disease-fighting abilities and pest

resistances that could be deployed to help sorghum.

The other (previously known as Sorghum arundinaceum) is a wild and

weedy rainforest species that flourishes in Africa's wet tropics, where today's

domesticated sorghums are poorly adapted. Although very little information is

available, it appears to be more photosynthetically efficient at low light

intensities than cultivated sorghum.

As of now it is not cultivated, but it may

have a future as a domesticated crop for humid and forested regions. It is a robust

species, very common along roadsides, vacant lots in cities, and other

"wastelands."

WIDE CROSSES

Sorghum can be crossed with grasses genetically distant enough to be

classified in different genera or even in different subfamilies. It is certainly highly

speculative to think that these crosses might have any economic merit, but

exploratory research efforts seem well worth undertaking. A few possibilities are

discussed here.

Crosses between sorghum and certain types of Chrysopogon, Vetiveria, and

Parasorghum are possible. Crosses with Pseudosorghum

Downes, 1971.

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WILL SORGHUM GO HIGH-TECH?

Since the 1960s, when tissue culture was developed for replicating

plants such as potato and tobacco on a mass scale, researchers have

attempted to apply this technique to grasses. For a decade or two it was

considered an impossibility, but recent discoveries have changed that, and a

few grasses can now be propagated this way. In 1989, for example, Indian

researchers L. George and S. Eapen of the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre

in Bombay reported replicating certain cultivars of sorghum using tissue

culture. This development could open a new world of understanding and

advancement for the world's fifth major food crop.*

The Indian scientists studied seven sorghum cultivars (C021, C022,

C023, C024, TNS24, TNS25, and TNS30). Cells from the stems refused to

form callus (the first step in the tissue-culture process), but cells from the

base of the leaves formed callus in every case. Also, cells from the seeds

of one cultivar (C023) formed callus in about one-third of the samples.

When the researchers added hormones to induce the undifferentiated

callus tissues to produce plantlets, all the callus samples formed roots.

However, only three of the cultivars (C023, TNS24, and TNS25) formed

shoots, and then only in 10-15 percent of the samples.

This discovery, while limited, is one upon which further refinements and

higher efficiencies can be built. With tissue culture, powerful techniques

such as restriction fragmentation length polymorphisms (RFLPs, see page

34), the production of pathogen-free plants, and challenge breeding can be

applied to understanding and improving this crop, which is so vital to Africa

and the world.

Techniques like these could open possibilities even for far-out

developments such as introducing into sorghum the gluten genes from

wheat, adding virus-resistance genes, making somaclonal selections, and

sorting through the crop's massive genetic diversity in ways that are far

more efficient than any imaginable even just a few years ago.

* These results are reported in Current Science (India) 58(6):308-310. The researchers used

the standard Murashige and Skoog medium to grow the leaf cells and added 2,4-D as a

hormone to stimulate growth. They used a combination of kinetin and tri-iodobenzoic acid to

induce root growth.

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and selected members of the Bothriochloeae and the Sorgheae also seem

possible. Crosses between subtribes might be possible if certain members of

Chrysopogon and Capillipedium were used.

American researchers are currently performing experimental crosses

between sorghum and johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense), a perennial forage that

has already introgressed with sorghum to become a pernicious weed in the United

States. It is hoped the grain qualities of sorghum can be united with the

rhizomatous habit of johnsongrass to create a powerful new perennial cereal.

Recently, crosses between sorghum itself and its sudangrass subspecies

(Sorghum bicolor subspecies sudanense) have produced hybrid grasses with

outstanding vigor. Their productivity and performance have boosted even more

the acreage and overall yield of forage sorghum, a main part of the livestock-

grazing industries of America and Argentina. They also promise to help in

reclaiming salt-affected lands (see next chapter).

It has long been known that sorghum can be crossed with sugarcane.

Chinese researchers now report developing a hybrid between the two that

contains more sugar and produces more stalk and grain than either parent.

Research along these lines might turn up fascinating new resources of

undreamed-of usefulness.

These speculations were put forward decades ago by Robert P. Celarier, who was

thinking in terms of clarifying taxonomic relationships in the subtribe Sorgheae. However,

the economic potential of these man-made crosses might be substantial.

S. Wittwer, Y. Yu, H. Sun, and L. Wang. 1987. Feeding a Billion. Michigan State

University Press. Such a cross might prove a method for boosting sorghum's grain yield. In a

sorghum flower, only one spikelet of each pair is fertile. In sugarcane and its relatives,

both spikelets of a pair are fertile. Moreover, this trait can be transferred to sorghum, at

least at the tetraploid level. See Gupta et al., 1978.

SORGHUM: SPECIALTY TYPES 193

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Sorghum: Fuel and Utility Types

Few people heretofore have paid much attention to the idea of growing

sorghum to burn. Cereal scientists, quite naturally, have regarded the plant

exclusively as a food. But these days, feeding the fire can be as hard as feeding

the people. Certain sorghums might help, and they warrant research.

Moreover, fuel is fundamental to many other parts of modern living. Indeed,

most of the human race is so hooked on flammable liquids for running factories

and powering trains, trucks, cars, and buses—not to mention providing

electricity—that life would be impossible, or at least intolerable, without them.

For all that, however, the prime liquid fuel, crude petroleum oil, is in

jeopardy. Perhaps the greatest challenge of the coming century will be the

development of sustainable alternatives. Surprisingly, sorghum might be one of

them. Indeed, sorghum could well bring many countries a giant step toward the

renewable-energy future everyone is hoping will eventuate to keep life livable in

the post-petroleum era.

This chapter highlights sorghum's potential to produce both solid fuels and

liquid fuels, to yield industrial products, and to help maintain the overall

sustainability of agricultural production.

FIREWOOD

Although food is fundamental, fuel is almost as basic to the modern diet.

Without it food cannot be cooked, and today's main grains, pulses, roots, and

tubers, as well as many vegetables, must be cooked to be edible.

These days, millions cook over open fires. Indeed, for more than a third of

the world's people, the real energy crisis is a frantic scramble for firewood. In the

poorest countries, up to 90 percent of the population depend on wood to cook

their meals. In parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, an average user may burn well

over a ton a year.

See companion report Firewood Crops: Shub and Tree Species for Energy

Production. For a list of BOSTID) publications, see page 377.

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Although the search for food soaks up a major part of the daily lives of

billions, the search for fuel to cook it with is becoming equally time-consuming.

Firewood is more and more difficult to find. In an increasing number of places,

gathering fuel now takes more time than growing food. There is a saying in

Africa that it costs more to heat the pot than to fill it.

Although in recent years much effort has been expended on developing

firewood crops, few advisers or administrators have ever thought of developing

sorghum for the fire. It is a fact, however, that certain types have woody stems

that put out surprising amounts of heat. They could well become part of the mix

of the firewood crops of the future.

Although these solid-stemmed sorghums have received almost no study as

fuel resources, one type has been tested in a preliminary way. It comes from

Egypt, where its stalks are more valued than its grains. Egyptians use them as

fuel. Called Giza 114, it has solid lignified stalks that burn at an especially high

temperature for the stem of a grass.

Little is known about Giza sorghum but, based on results from preliminary

trials, it could have a glowing future. It has shown promise in Peru, for example,

where it was produced to fuel cookstoves and brick kilns. It is now being tested in

Haiti, where it also seems to have good potential as fuel.

It is not inconceivable that sorghums like this could become a standard part

of farming in fuel-short nations. Their annual biomass yield is likely to equal or

better that from trees. The yield of sorghum stalks has been measured in China as

75 tons per hectare, probably representing more than 10 tons per hectare of dry

biomass. This would be a respectable annual production for even the fastest

growing trees. The overall yield in fuel-calories per hectare may also be

comparable, although even the densest sorghum stem will not equal the caloric

output of a wood sample of equal volume. Perhaps, too, a modest harvest of grain

can also be achieved.

Compared with trees, sorghums have the advantage in that they produce fuel

within months—even weeks, Several crops a year may be possible in appropriate

locations. This may help relieve not only the frenzied foraging for firewood that

goes on today, but also the destruction of woodlands and forests that seems to end

only when desert or degraded soils remain. People who can find fuel in fields

close at hand will not hike to far-off forests and haul bulky wood all the way

back. Their need is not for large-diameter tree trunks but for small stems that can

be easily cut, carried, and fed into the space beneath a pot perched on rocks. For

such a purpose, solid-stalked sorghums could become vital resources of the

future.

Information from M. Price.

SORGHUM: FUEL AND UTILITY TYPES 196

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Sorghum stalks make a poor fuel, but for millions they are all that is available.

To this extent, they provide a vital contribution toward relieving hunger because

all the starchy staples must be cooked to become edible. (Nathan Benn)

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LIQUID FUELS

For the economic stability and expansion of nations, liquid petroleum fuels

—kerosene, gasoline, and diesel, for instance—have become essential. As noted,

these liquids not only power factories, trains, trucks, and buses, they also generate

electricity and produce thousands of items from machines to medicines.

Moreover, maintaining mobility is critical to the public welfare: police, fire

fighters, ambulances, mass transit, and construction fleets all depend on liquids

that will explode in the cylinders of internal combustion engines.

For these and other reasons, the growing dilemma over future petroleum

supplies makes it imperative to investigate renewable fuels, especially those

suited for use in existing engine types. Of all the nonpetroleum possibilities,

ethanol is the only one now significantly used in motor transport.

At present, ethanol is made from either sugarcane or maize. In the future,

however, sorghum is likely to also be a prime supplier. The stalks of certain

sorghums are just as packed with sugar as are sugarcane's. Their juice contains

13-20 percent total fermentable sugars. They can yield about 6 percent alcohol.

Sweet-stalk types are sparingly distributed across sorghum-growing areas of

Africa and India, where people chew the green and tender stems like sugarcane

or make syrups, molasses, sugar, or confections from them. They were once a

major source of sweeteners in the southern United States. Now, however, they

have a rising potential as sources of fuel.

All in all, sweet sorghums are important for future ethanol production

because they have:

• High biomass yield;

• High percentage of fermentable sugars;

• High percentage of combustible materials (for fueling the processing);

• Comparatively short growth period;

• Tolerance to drought stress; and

• Relatively low fertilizer requirement.

Moreover, sweet sorghums may produce some grain for food or feed.

Indeed, as sorghum is one of the most efficient plants, and as it produces

fermentable sugars as well as grain, it seems almost ideal for

See companion report, Alcohol Fuels: Options for Developing Countries. National

Research Council, Washington, D.C. 1983. Research on another renewable-energy

alternative, vegetable oils, is described in E. Griffin Shay. Diesel fuel from vegetable oils:

status and opportunities. Biomass and Bioenergy. Vol. 4, No. 4, 1993. pp. 227-242.

SORGHUM: FUEL AND UTILITY TYPES 198

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producing both energy and food. Technologies used in the sugarcane industry can

be applied virtually without modification.

Sweet sorghum has a number of potential advantages over sugarcane. For

example, it is adapted to many growing conditions, unlike sugarcane, which is

restricted to tropical climates. It requires less water and fertilizer. It can be

planted more easily (from seeds not stems). And it also has a potential for low

unit costs because it can be fully mechanized and the fields need not be burned

(unlike sugarcane fields).

Sorghum's advantage over maize (in which the grain is converted to alcohol)

is that it produces sugar rather than starch. As a result, sorghum juice can be

directly fermented without the expense or delay of an initial hydrolysis.

Recently, researchers in at least three countries have begun to appreciate the

potential of sorghum as a fuel as the following examples show.

India

In southern India, the potential of sorghum varieties that yield both grain and

sugar-filled stems is being explored.

Engineers at the Nimbkar Agricultural

Research Institute (NARI) have found that these dual-purpose varieties solve

three problems: they yield food, the fuel to cook it with, and the fodder to feed

the farm animals that help produce it. From the top of the plant comes grain for

food; from the stalk comes sugar (and hence alcohol) for fuel; and from the pulp

remaining after the sugar is extracted comes animal fodder.

In the past, multipurpose sorghums were dismissed or at least overlooked,

probably in the expectation that the individual yields of the various products

would be low. But the NARI researchers are showing that this may not be the

case. Indeed, they claim that I hectare of their sorghums can annually yield 2-4

tons of grain, 2,000—4,000 liters of alcohol, and enough crushed stalk to feed

from three to five cattle year-round.

The idea of ''growing" fuel alcohol is of course not new. However, most

other programs have faltered because the cost of the fuel needed to distill the

alcohol rendered them economically unattractive. NARI engineers circumvented

this by designing a solar-powered still, incorporating a solar collector and a

distillation column that can run at 5070°C—temperatures that the solar collector

can easily provide.

Also,

Rajvanshi et al., 1989.

For the fermentation, NARI uses strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The average

fermentation efficiency was 90 percent and the fermentation process took 48-72 hours to

complete.

The pilot model consists of flat-plate solar collectors (38 m

in area) coupled to a hot

water storage tank (2,150 1 capacity).

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they have developed pressurized and unpressurized lanterns as well as a wickless

stove that will run on aqueous alcohol taken directly from the still.

NARI suggests that this combination of multipurpose sorghum and

appropriate technology could, in theory, meet all the automotive fuel

requirements in India by the year 2000, completely replace the kerosene now used

in Maharashtra, and supply 80 percent of the fodder for all the cattle in

Maharashtra. Although such levels will never be approached in practice and it

seems axiomatic that grain yields will tumble when sugar is also produced, the

NARI concept is a powerful one that could be a big breakthrough that boosts

sorghum into an energy resource worldwide. And perhaps, after all, it is not too

far-fetched to envisage sorghum producing both high contents of sugar in the stem

and high yields of grain.

United States

A large sorghum-for-alcohol project was carried out across the United States

between 1978 and 1984. As part of this project, the University of Nebraska

developed a demonstration farm based entirely on renewable fuels. Sweet

sorghum was the principal crop for alcohol production. Hybrids that grew rapidly

and produced large amounts of sugar were created.

A major constraint of sweet sorghum in the temperate zone is the harvest

period. Wherever the potential of a freeze exists, the harvest period is greatly

reduced because the crop must be gathered before any freezing weather. Sugar in

the damaged stalks begins to ferment.

Brazil

Of all the nations in the world, Brazil is the ethanol-fuel pioneer. It already

has fuel alcohol in large-scale nationwide use. So far, however, this has come

almost entirely from sugarcane. Now, Brazil's scientists are exploring the use of

sweet sorghum. The two crops, it has been found, supplement one another:

sorghum can provide alcohol during the season in which sugarcane is

unavailable.

Therefore, using the two together increases the period of

production, decreases the unit cost, and increases the total amount of alcohol that a

distillery can

Researchers in Texas have also discovered that high yields of sugar are not

incompatible with high yields for grain. Information from F.R. Miller.

Information from M.D. Clegg.

Sugarcane in Brazil is normally ready to harvest between June and November; the

harvesting period for sweet sorghum is from February to May. Information from R.E.

Schaffert.

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produce each year. The same equipment is used to process both sugarcane stalks

and sweet-sorghum stalks.

WILL BRAZIL'S CARS RUN ON SORGHUM?

Brazil leads the world in the use of fuel alcohol. In 1993, about 4.3

million vehicles—one-third of the country's total fleet and about 40 percent

of its car population—operate on ethanol. Almost all that alcohol now comes

from sugarcane, but in the future it may come from sorghum as well.

Brazilian researchers have shown that sweet sorghum can yield from

22 to 45 tons of raw biomass per hectare in 110 days. Fermentable solids

(80 percent sugars and 20 percent starch) in the stalks amount to 2.5-5 tons

per hectare. To optimize the output, enzymes are added so that the starch

in the stems is also converted to alcohol. Research has shown that in this

way 1 ton of sweet-sorghum stalks has the potential to yield 74 liters of

200-proof alcohol.

Such discoveries have implications for countries everywhere. In that

distant but inevitable day when the world's petroleum runs out, maybe

people will turn to sorghum to keep civilization humming. Brazil is showing

us yet another way this remarkable plant will be important in our future.

The Brazilian scientists are also extending their studies to incorporate

sorghum into an integrated system in which the by-products are used as food,

feed, fertilizer, and fiber. Further, they are adapting this technology to a

microscale to allow the economical production of fuel in a decentralized

industry. This reduces transportation costs and may perhaps allow the farmers to

generate their own energy.

SORGHUM IN SUPPORTING ROLES

Around the world, sorghum is mostly grown for food or feed and (as just

mentioned) a little is being grown for fuel. However, there are several interesting

uses in which sorghum is grown not for its own sake but for the benefit of other

crops. Below are three examples.

Soil Reclamation

Saline Soils

It has recently been found that crosses between sorghum and sudangrass (a

special race of sorghum), have the capacity to repair saline soils made crusty by

sodium compounds. David L. Carter, director of soil and water management

research at the U.S. Department

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of Agriculture station in Kimberly, Idaho, predicts that "they are going to produce

some good forage on these marginal lands and at the same time will reclaim some

of these soils for crops for human consumption."

Acids released by the sordan roots dissolve calcium carbonate or lime, and in

so doing they release calcium. The calcium then displaces sodium in the soil. The

newly released sodium reacts with carbon dioxide to form sodium bicarbonate, a

soluble salt that is less injurious to plants and mostly washes away in the rain.

After growing sordan on sodic lands for about 2 years, farmers can often

re-use the soil for conventional crops.

Reclaiming Toxic Soils

U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists in Lincoln, Nebraska, have found

that sorghum has an exceptional ability to absorb pollutants out of soil. According

to their research, sorghum strips excess nitrogen out of soils with such efficiency

that it may solve waste disposal problems for cities and livestock operations (such

as feedlots) that generate nitrogen-laden wastes. "We've been able to capitalize on

sorghum's natural ability to act as a scavenger," says Kenneth J. Moore. "Sorghum

thrives in toxic soils that kill less resilient plants and its penetrating roots can

capture the nitrogen in a vast volume of soil."

Moore, an agronomist, and his colleague Jeffrey F. Pedersen, a plant

geneticist, are now developing a system in which nitrogen is not only removed

but is returned to use safely and economically. They plant sorghum in highly

contaminated soils, cut the crop several times through the growing season, and

feed the foliage to livestock. The key to the process is sorghum's robust growth

and extensive root system.

Such an environmental tool could be very valuable these days. In Nebraska,

for instance, municipal and livestock wastes are commonly disposed of by

applying them to fallow cropland. An excessive buildup of nitrogen is one of the

resulting hazards. "By planting forage sorghum in well-managed cropping

system, producers can safely recycle that nitrogen," says Moore.

Two years ago, Moore and Pedersen began their project at a sewage sludge

disposal site by planting several types of sorghum: grain types, forage types,

tropical types, sweet sorghums, and sorghum-sudangrass hybrids. Soils there

contained 400 kg per hectare of nitrogen. The tropical sorghums and hybrids

absorbed the most nitrogen from the soil, removing an average of 200 kg and

yielding more than 20 metric tons of dry matter per hectare in one season.

"We hoped for more, but the first year's growing season proved to be short

and cool," says Moore. "Under normal conditions, some

The companion report Saline Agriculture has more information on sordan grass and

salt-tolerant agriculture. For a list of BOSTID reports, see page 377.

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NEW LIFE FOR SALTY SOIL

Over the last few decades, irrigation has saved the world's food supply

from catastrophe. But irrigation has a fundamental flaw: in the drylands

where it is most used, evaporation leaves the site with a surplus of soda

and salt. In their worst forms such "sodic" soils become self-sealing: their

internal structure collapses so that water just sits uselessly on the surface.

Sorghum, it turns out, can help.

Sorghum roots ooze large amounts of sugars. Ordinarily, soil microbes

gobble these up, but sodic soils tend to be anaerobic and lack the right

organisms. Instead, chemical processes break down the sugars in a way

that releases carbon dioxide. A weak natural acid carbon dioxide reacts with

the soluble alkalis (sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate) to form

acetic acid and a little formic acid. These stronger acids, in turn, react with

the insoluble alkalis such as calcium carbonate. Sorghum's overall effect is

therefore to reduce the alkalinity and convert minerals into more soluble

forms. When those wash away, the soil's natural porosity is reopened.

This process occurs with amazing efficiency. Researchers at the U.S.

Department of Agriculture have reclaimed marginal sodium-affected soils

using sorghum (mainly the forage types called sordan and sudangrass)

after just one season. In fields so toxic that crops would not grow, they get

respectable stands of barley and alfalfa after just one season of sorghum.

Beans, a highly salt-sensitive plant, can be grown after two or three

seasons of sorghum. Within one season it not uncommon for the alkalinity

to drop a full pH unit and the calcium solubility to increase tenfold. At first,

however, the plants come up scraggly, stunted, and yellow. This has been

traced to iron deficiency, to which sorghums are very sensitive. But when

the "acidification mechanism" kicks in, the iron concentration in the plant

shoots up, they turn green and grow rapidly.

The process is much more than a way to reclaim soils. The researchers

are also getting some of the highest dry-matter production recorded in

feed-sorghum, especially during the hottest of the summer months. Dry

weight up to 67 tons per hectare.*

* Information in this section is from Charles W. Robbins, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

3793 North 3600 East, Kimberly, Idaho 83341, USA.

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tropical sorghums absorb as much as 300 kg of nitrogen and yield 25 tons of

dry matter per hectare."

Sorghum is so efficient a scavenger that nitrogen levels in the foliage can

actually build up to levels harmful to livestock. To address this possibility of

nitrate toxicity, the researchers rated their sorghums for nitrate content. Most

were at or near toxic levels, but the ensiling process (a lactic-acid fermentation;

see Appendix C) removes any threat to the animals.

With further refinement, this process could prove to be a method for

continuously stripping nitrogen (and perhaps other pollutants, both useful and

hazardous) out of the wastes from cities and industries. "Sorghum-sudangrass

hybrids are very popular now in Nebraska and other Central Plains and Midwest

states," says Pedersen. "They could be put immediately to work consuming

organic wastes."

WIND EROSION

Researchers the world over are working hard to keep sorghum alive, but

James D. Bilbro, Jr., is more interested in sorghum dead. He wants to foil the

winter winds that pick up soil from Texas farmland and whirl it away across the

American landscape. Dead sorghum, it seems, is an answer.

Bilbro, a U.S. Department of Agriculture agronomist in Big Spring, Texas,

is exploring ways to protect farmland during a long, cold, blustery winter when

the crops have been harvested and the land is bare. Today, farmers in his part of

the country normally put in a special crop to cover the land and keep the soil

pinned down. The plants survive under the snow, and to get the land back for

planting the main crops again, the farmers must eventually kill them with

herbicides.

Bilbro asks: Why spend money on herbicides and risk the environment when

nature could do the work? In late summer or fall he plants warm-weather crops

and finds that they serve very well. Although dead by December, they cover at

least 60 percent of the ground, thereby eliminating wind erosion.

Of the 16 crops Bilbro has tested, forage sorghum is the most promising. He

thinks that farmers will soon start using it to protect soil because it will save them

money, help the environment, and (because the sorghum plants live such a short

time before the frost arrives) leave more moisture behind for the subsequent

crops.

The technique is being developed in the Texas High Plains, but it may prove

useful wherever wind erosion is a problem in the cold-weather zones.

This may seem like a minor use for a major food crop, but the potential is

actually vast. Wind damaged 1.74 million hectares of

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cropland and rangeland in the 10-state Great Plains area during the last wind-

erosion season (November 1991 to May 1992). And more than 6 million hectares

were reported to be vulnerable to losing their topsoil to the wind. And that was

just in the United States.

Weed Control

In previous times, farmers used many plants in crop rotations to control

weeds. With the advent of modern herbicides, this practice was dropped in favor

of continuous cultivation of the most profitable cash crop. Science is now

documenting what these farmers knew—and perhaps too often have forgotten.

One example from the United States involves sorghum.

Despite the fact that U.S. farmers apply nearly 200 million kg of herbicides

every year, they lose $10 billion worth of crops to weeds. But one Nebraska

farmer, Gary Young, doesn't buy any herbicides and his 100 hectares of crops are

doing just fine. About 10 years ago, Young noticed that his fields produced fewer

than normal weeds the year after he grew sorghum. Since then he has relied on

sorghum, not chemicals.

Now there is increasing proof that sorghum is a weed killer that works.

Frank Einhellig, a biologist at the University of South Dakota, and James

Rasmussen, an ecologist at Mount Marty College of Yankton, South Dakota,

recently completed 3 years of field trials on Young's farm. On test plots covering 6

hectares, they had Young plant strips of sorghum, maize, and soybeans, and they

measured the number of weeds that came up in the following year's crop. The

strips that had been planted with sorghum produced only one-third as many weed

seedlings at crop-planting time. Even in midsummer—without herbicides or

cultivation—the total weed biomass was still 40 percent less than that on the plots

that had been planted to maize and soybeans the previous year.

The surprise is that sorghum suppressed broad-leaved weeds without

affecting grasses. It is a selective "herbicide" and thus has special importance for

cereal farmers. (It is also well known that broad-leafed crops following sorghum

are likely to give poor yields.)

The active ingredients are thought to be phenolic acids and cyanogenic

glycosides given off by sorghum's roots. Phenolic acids affect plant-cell

membranes and thus reduce a plant's ability to absorb water. They also disturb

cell division and hormonal activity, and seem to inhibit seed germination as well

as the seedling's early growth and

For more information, contact James D. Bilbro, Jr., USDA-ARS Conservation and

Production Systems Research Unit, P.O. Box 909. Big Spring, Texas 79721-090. USA.

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SORGHUM SAVES THE SEASON

As this book shows, sorghum is a remarkable crop, but even we were

surprised to learn of the following recent experience.

In the area around Lubbock, Texas, cotton has long been king. The

rains there fall in the spring (as well as fall) and the cotton thrives in the hot,

dry months that follow. But in the spring of 1992, the rains and record low

temperatures came during the planting season. Throughout the region,

more than 800,000 hectares were lost because of the unusual conditions.

The cool and damp released the soil diseases and pests that had built up

over the years and the cotton seedlings quickly succumbed.

The Federal government declared the crop a total loss and authorized

disaster payments for the farmers. The farmers, however, faced an

unexpected problem: their land was bare and could blow away in the

summer winds or wash away in later rains. They needed a ground cover. In

desperation they decided to sow nearly 600,000 hectares to sorghum.

Even in this seemingly simple task there was a difficulty. The cotton

fields had been treated with a weed killer that is both persistent and

designed to kill grasses. Sorghum obviously could not survive. Then

someone suggested that an old-fashioned farm implement called a "lister-

planter" might work. Fifty years before, farmers used these double-

moldboard plows but had since given them up as too old fashioned and too

energy consuming.

Now, however, in the 1992 emergency, the countryside was scoured

for any of the old plows that were still lying about. Some were found quietly

rusting away behind various barns.

Instead of planting sorghum seed in the normal way on the ridges left

by the lister, the farmers planted it in the furrows. There, the roots had

better access to the soil moisture, but more importantly the toxic topsoil had

been scraped aside.

Nothing more was done. The sandy land had already been treated with

nitrogen for the cotton crop and—although most observers believed that the

rains had probably already leached the fertilizer below root depth—

everyone hoped that the combination of furrow-planting and sorghum's

deep roots would ensure at least a solid stand to cover the land. A few

went beyond that and hoped for a modest harvest of sorghum grain.

The crop was harvested in the fall of 1992. Even with the late planting,

minimum preparation, and no inputs, it was a record for that parched area.

The figure—4,500 kg per hectare—actually matched the national average

for sorghum. Elevators overflowed

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Typical scene near Lubbock, Texas in 1992. Part of the unexpected near-record

harvest. (A.B. Maunder)

with the unexpected bounty and grain had to be mounded in huge piles

in the city streets. Some of the piles were half a kilometer long. Coming on

top of their disaster payments, the farmers made more money than ever!

Is it any wonder, therefore, that the cotton farmers of Texas now look

on sorghum with new respect? Years before they had used it as a rotation

crop, and now they would like to use it that way again. Planting sorghum

one year in four, they think, should break the buildup of cotton pests and

diseases in the soil and help avoid future failures of the cotton crop. It might

also improve soil tilth, decrease erosion, and diversify the local agriculture.

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development. Cyanogenic glycosides are known to break down into

secondary substances that include cyanide. "Cyanide," Einhellig notes, "is a pretty

strong inhibitor of any growth system."

In his latest technique, Gary Young plants sorghum in the fall and allows it

to freeze during the winter. The dead sorghum almost

completely suppressed weeds, particularly broad-leaved weeds, throughout the

year. Snap beans and other crops planted in the residue the following season

required almost no weed control.

Now, many of Young's neighbors also plant sorghum and are finding

reasonable weed control without herbicides.

In Africa, these effects may be especially important. Today, weeding is

perhaps the greatest of all drudgeries in African farming. Most is done by hand

—some of it on hands and knees. Returning to the old ways might just solve the

problem.

With the new findings in mind, it is possible that the ongoing switch from

sorghum to maize may be exacerbating Africa's weed problems. In the future,

though, sorghum may become the maize farmer's best friend. Rotations of the two

may benefit both.

Crop Support

West African farmers use sorghum for supporting yam plants. They employ a

special kind that has stalks like ramrods. The yam plants are extremely heavy so

the fact that sorghum can hold them up is graphic evidence of its strength.

Actually, it is even more remarkable than it appears at first. The sorghums

support the crushing weight of yams even 8 months after their grain has matured

and they have died. Farmers bend the sorghum stalks over to create an

intertwined "trellis" about 1.2 m high. The yams are grown on this woven wall of

dead stalks from the previous season's sorghum crop.

Few plants could withstand such treatment. The tentlike canopy of

clambering yam plants entraps heat and moisture and fosters molds, mildews, and

rots of many kinds. These sorghums, therefore must be very fungus-resistant,

even when dead.

Little attention has ever been given to yam-staking sorghums. Latin

America's traditional use of maize plants to hold up climbing beans has been

extolled, but Africa's even more remarkable counterpart is little known.

These strong-stalk sorghums might be excellent for use with many climbing

annuals, including, for example:

• Macroptilium—an extremely promising tropical forage legume

The yam vines can be 3 m tall and weigh perhaps 50 kg.

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whose yields rise dramatically if it can be kept off the ground, where it

becomes affected by mildew.

• Winged bean—a climbing bean that could become a major crop of the

tropics if cheap ways to support it can be found.

• The viny types of lima beans, common beans, common peas, and runner

beans that tend to be the highest yielding varieties but are seldom grown

because of the expense of staking them or the lack of poles.

• Beans, squash, or other climbing plants traditionally grown on maize.

Switching to sorghum might extend this useful practice to locations too

dry for maize.

SORGHUM IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS

Strictly speaking, this book is about plants that produce food, but we cannot

resist rounding out the sorghum story with a glimpse at this plant's actual and

potential utility as a source of everyday items for industry and for people in their

homes.

Fiber Resources

In the rural regions of Africa and Asia, people have devised many uses for

sorghum stems. These include:

• Roof thatching;

• Sleeping mats and baskets (made from the peeled stems); and

• Strings in traditional musical instruments (in Nigeria, for example, the

peeled bark is used this way

In China, a particularly strong type has been developed for its pliable, dense

stalks. Usually known as galiang sorghum, it is used for constructing fences,

walls, and many household items, including grain bins bigger than the beds of

pick-up trucks.

Brooms

Broomcorn belongs to this special galiang group of sorghums. It is a special

sorghum that is grown not for food, forage, or fuel but for the bristles that rise

from its flower head (inflorescence). These stiff, very strong, strawlike

projections can be up to 60 cm long. For several centuries, people have used them

to make brooms and brushes.

Information from S. Agboire.

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Broomcorn was apparently developed in the Mediterranean region during

the Middle Ages. (The original sorghums are thought to have come from Africa

or India.) It was growing in Italy before the year 1596, and soon thereafter it was

being cultivated in Spain, France, Austria, and southern Germany.

Before this sorghum's arrival, Europe's houses, warehouses, front steps,

streets, and other places that accumulate dust, dirt, leaves, and horse manure were

swept with loose bundles of straw. These not only fell apart quickly, they lacked

the strength and springiness to properly flick dust and dirt out of cracks and

crevices. Broomcorn, therefore, may well have been one of the most beneficial

advances in European public health.

In the United States broomcorn became, if anything, even more important

than in Europe. Benjamin Franklin is credited with introducing this strange

sorghum. He apparently brought the seed from England in 1725 (when he was

only 19) and grew the first broomcorn in North America. It took hold, however.

In 1781, Thomas Jefferson listed broomcorn among six important agricultural

crops of Virginia. It has been the basis for billions of long-lasting brushes and

brooms ever since.

In the competition with man-made fibers and the vacuum cleaner—both of

which should in theory have swept it aside—broomcorn is holding its own in the

United States. Today, products made of this sorghum are used in millions of

American households, warehouses, stores, factories, steel mills, smelters, cotton

mills, and barns. They range from whisk brooms to yard brooms for rough

sweeping and special purposes.

Considerable development of broomcorn subsequently took place in the

United States, but apparently few (if any) other countries have given the crop

much attention. This is certainly surprising and should be investigated. Dozens of

countries—from Rwanda to Russia—still sweep with bundles of straw. For them,

too, this sorghum with the wiry flowers might be a boon.

The broomcorn plant is unlike other sorghums. The stem is dry and hard.

The kernels are small and are often enclosed in long ellipsoid husklike coverings

(glumes).

The plant has been typecast as a source of brooms and brushes, but it could

very well have other equally important uses. For instance, broomcorn stalks are

used for paper in France. Reportedly, excellent yields of fiber are obtained by

planting the crop very densely. The pulp is used to manufacture kraft paper,

newsprint, and fiberboard.

Danish scientists have also made a good paneling using the chips from

internodes. Similar products are beginning to be explored in Zimbabwe as well.

However, insufficient work has been done to really know the possibilities.

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Chinese researchers are using tall sorghums for making plywood. The process

apparently works well and gives a product stronger than wood.

Dyes

Moroccan leather is said to get its color from red dye extracted from special

sorghums. These red-seeded varieties were raised in sub-Saharan Africa and in

the old days were sent across the Sahara to Fez or elsewhere by caravan. Natural

dyes (especially red ones) are increasingly in demand these days, so perhaps these

types could be commercially produced once more (see box, next page).

Resins

There is a black-grain sorghum from Africa called ''shawya" that shows

promise in producing industrial resins.

ANIMAL FEED

The United States probably leads the world in developing sorghum as a

feedstuff. The plant is now a vital animal feed throughout the nation's warmer

regions (see page 160).

Although it has been in the United States since the earliest days (see page

186), grain sorghum first became a major American crop in the 1930s, when

dwarf cultivars were bred. These lent themselves to large-scale operations and

combine harvesting, and the acreage began increasing. The grains were used

exclusively for feeding livestock and became so valuable for this purpose that by

shortly after World War II, sorghum had become the most important cash crop in

Texas and was a valuable resource in several other states as well.

Then in the late 1950s male sterility was discovered in sorghum (see page

163). This made hybrids possible. Sorghums that had originated in South Africa,

Ethiopia, and the Sudan were bred together to create hybrids, and yields jumped

as much as 40 percent. This led, in turn, to vastly more plantings and even more

American animals were soon living off sorghum grain.

Today, the country produces about 19 million tons of sorghum grain each

year, and millions of American cattle, pigs, chickens, and turkeys

Information from F.R. Miller.

Information from L.W. Rooney.

In 1957, about 15 percent of U.S. sorghum had been the hybrid form; within 2-3

years, the figure exceeded 90 percent.

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RED SORGHUM RISING

In parts of West Africa people grow a form of sorghum that is inedible

(and may even be poisonous). The plant provides a windbreak around huts

and along the edges of fields, but more importantly it provides masses of

leaf sheaths. These rusty-colored, parchment-like wrappings, which

surround the leaf stems, provide pigments that are traditionally used to

color leather goods. Millions of suitcases, shoes, hats, baskets, book

covers, and other products get their brilliant red hues this way. The scarlet

flame of the famous "Moroccan leather" and of the fez have their origins in

this particular sorghum plant (race caudatum).

Traditionally, bundles of leaf sheaths were extracted in a difficult and

laborious cottage-industry process. Now, however, this time-consuming and

uncertain technique is being updated. In Burkina Faso, Mouhoussine

Nacro, head of the Organic Chemistry Laboratory at Ouagadougou

University, has been developing a new and more versatile version since

1989. Indeed, he is opening up the potential for producing sorghum dyes on

a massive scale.

Nacro's dye-extraction process uses simple techniques but modern

materials. Basically, he and his colleagues crush the sorghum sheaths, add

a solvent, separate the liquid emulsion, and centrifuge the result. This

produces the pure pigment as a burgundy-red powder that is ready for use

and can be safely stored.

The pigment, Professor Nacro has discovered, is a mixture of

anthocyanins. The main component, apigenin, is the same natural coloring

used by food industries in many parts of the world. Moreover, it is

increasingly sought these days because synthetic food dyes are suspected

of causing harm.

Red-sorghum leaf sheaths contain over 20 percent of the apigenin and

are said to be the only known source of such large concentrations. They

contain more than four times the amount in the skin of the red grape,

currently the most common source.

Burkina Faso's new process can easily be reproduced on an industrial

scale, and commercial production of dyes could result in a new and

valuable use for sorghum—one that has widespread application throughout

the developing world, but especially in West Africa.

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are fattened on it. Production is centered in the Great Plains, and extends

over a vast area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Dakotas (see map, page 160).

But the crop is a more important feedstuff even than that. Only about two-

thirds of America's sorghum plants are harvested for grains, and most of the rest

also goes for animal feed. They, however, are turned into forage or silage or are

left in the fields for grazing. This use of foliage rather than grain developed after

sudangrass was introduced in about 1909. This grass sorghum has since been

hybridized with grain sorghums to yield the "sorghum-sudan" hybrids. These

crossbreeds are now widely used in the dry regions of the Plains states as well as

in the Southeast, where other forages are sometimes hit hard by midsummer

droughts and pests.

Although sorghum has advanced rapidly during the last 50 years, the fact

that Americans developed it mainly as a livestock feed is in some ways

unfortunate: the varieties typically had brown or red seed coats and are only

peripherally relevant to food production. Moreover, in the public mind the crop

became stigmatized as "animal food." Only now is there a nationwide glimmering

of appreciation for sorghum as something people can eat. Today, American

farmers are growing more and more of these food-grain sorghums, abandoning

the brown and red types and switching to those with yellow or white seeds.

Broom Corn

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Even people who work with the crop think the name "sorghum" has too many bad

connotations in the American public's mind. Researcher Bruce Maunder has suggested the

name "sungrain," on the basis that the white. cream, and yellow grains are "sunlike" and

the grain is directly exposed to the sun's rays from pollination to harvest.

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TEF

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is a significant crop in only one country in the world—

Ethiopia. There, however, its production exceeds that of most other cereals. Each

year, Ethiopian farmers plant almost 1.4 million hectares of tef,

and they produce

0.9 million tons of grain, or about a quarter of the country's total cereals.

The grain is especially popular in the western provinces, where people

prefer it to all other cereals and eat it once or twice (occasionally three times)

every day. In that area, tef contributes about two-thirds of the protein to a typical

diet.

Most tef is made into injera, a flat, spongy, and slightly sour bread that

looks like a giant bubbly pancake the size of a serving tray. People tear off pieces

and use them to scoop up spicy stews that constitute the main meals. For the

middle and upper classes it is the preferred staple; for the poor it is a luxury they

generally cannot afford.

Unlike many of the species in this book, tef is not in decline. Indeed, farmers

have steadily increased their plantings in recent years. The area cultivated rose

from less than 40 percent of Ethiopia's total cereal area in 1960 to more than 50

percent in 1980.

Tef is so overwhelmingly important in Ethiopia that its absence elsewhere is a

mystery. The plant can certainly be grown in many countries. Some has long been

produced for food in Yemen, Kenya (near Marsabit), Malawi, and India, for

example. Also, the plant is widely grown as a forage for grazing animals in South

Africa and Australia.

Now, however, the use of tef as a cereal for humans is transcending the

boundaries of Ethiopia. Commercial production has begun in both the United

States and South Africa, and international markets are opening up. This is

because Ethiopian restaurants have recently

The common name is often spelled "teff' or "t'ef' in English. We recommend "tef': it is

simple, unconfusing, and perhaps a good marketing name that might help the crop's future

expansion and acceptance worldwide.

According to statistics of the mid-1980s, tef produced 23 percent of Ethiopia's cereal

grain. The others were sorghum (26 percent), maize (21.7 percent), barley (17 percent),

and wheat (12.4 percent).

TEF 215

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TEF 216

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TEF 217

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become popular in both Europe and North America. Many cities (including

Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Rome, and Frankfurt,

not to mention Tel Aviv) now have restaurants that rely on injera, as well as the

convivial communal dining it fosters. And only tef can make authentic injera.

The new appreciation of tef is also extending into the research community.

These days scientists in Ethiopia and a few other countries are beginning to

seriously study the plant and its products.

This is all to the good. Tef has much more promise than has been previously

thought. It provides a quality food. It grows well under difficult conditions, many

of them poorly suited to other cereals. Even in its current state it gives fairly good

yields—about the same as wheat under traditional farming in Ethiopia. And it

usually produces grain in bad seasons as well as good—an invaluable attribute

for poor farmers and of special benefit to locations beset by changeable

conditions.

However, along with its advantages tef has serious drawbacks, mainly

stemming from its tiny seeds, high demands for labor, lack of development, and

difficult cultural practices. All in all, at this stage at least, it is neither easy to grow

nor easy to handle.

PROSPECTS

To chart tefs future—both its course and final destination among world

cereals—cannot now be done with confidence. This will become clearer as the

current research efforts begin producing more results. Nonetheless, there are good

reasons for optimism that tef's technical limitations can be overcome and that it

can rise to be a specialty crop in a number of nations. It could happen quickly.

Indeed, injera is such a fascinating food (half pancake, half pasta) that it has the

potential to eventually become well-known worldwide.

Africa

In Ethiopia, the plant's stable yield under varying conditions, as well as the

grain's good storage properties, palatability, and premium prices, will likely make

tef ever more attractive.

However, although

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Injera can be made from other grains, but when made from tef it keeps its soft and

spongy texture for 3 days; when made from wheat, sorghum, or barley it hardens after only a

day. Buckwheat is perhaps the closest substitute.

Something similar is now happening with the tortilla, the round flat bread of Mexico

and Central America, which is being sold in supermarkets throughout the United States

and is also showing up ever more frequently in other parts of the world. On the open

market in Ethiopia, its grain always commands a price substantially above that of other

cereals.

On the open market in Ethiopia, its grain always commands a price substantially above

that of other cereals.

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INJERA

Perhaps the most intriguing of all the world's staples, injera is a bread

like no other. Moist, chewy, and almost elastic, it has a unique look and

feel. A very correct British gentleman visiting Ethiopia in the mid-1800s tried

to explain the experience of eating injera: "fancy yourself chewing a piece

of sour sponge," he said, "and you will have a good idea of what is

considered the best bread in Abyssinia." But these days people are not so

closed-minded. Indeed, the search for new tastes and new culinary

sensations is becoming a force that is opening up the food industries of

affluent nations. Injera is now winning converts all over the world. It is

served in fine restaurants in Europe, North America, and Israel and is

receiving an enthusiastic welcome.

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prospects for raising its production seem good, substantial increases will

probably occur only after its labor requirements are reduced.

Tef may also come to benefit other African countries, notably some that

today face food-production problems. The plant's resistance to diseases, pests, and

heavy soils give it special appeal.

Several of tef's relatives are valued forages in the world's arid zones,

and tef

itself might also have a future as a fodder. Indeed, in southern Africa it is already

used extensively, having originally fed the horses and oxen of the Boer War

almost a century ago. Tef hay is of such quality that South African farmers prefer

it over all others for feeding, their dairy cattle, sheep, and horses (see page 230).

Moreover, this grass is exciting South Africans as a "quick fix" for holding

down bare soil and thereby baffling erosion while more permanent ground covers

establish themselves.

Humid Areas

Prospects probably low. For Africa's humid areas, tef's prospects are

unknown because trials have not been conducted (or at least not reported).

However, the crop comes from a relatively dry environment and probably has

little or no potential in a hot and steamy one.

Dry Areas

Good prospects. Tef is a reliable cereal for unreliable climates, especially

those with dry seasons of unpredictable occurrence and length.

Upland Areas

Good prospects. Most of Ethiopia's tef is produced at moderate elevations,

but it has long been common on the high plateau and is being slowly introduced

to higher and higher locations. Its future contribution to the rural economy of

these and other African highlands appears to be substantial.

Other Regions

Tef holds promise for many countries beyond Africa. Mexico, Bolivia, Peru,

Ecuador, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Australia might well adopt it. In addition,

this plant's rapid maturity and inherent cold tolerance may open new areas of

grain cultivation for high latitudes where growing seasons are short—Canada,

Alaska, the Soviet Union,

These are usually called "love grasses" as reflected in the botanic name, which is

derived from Eros (god of love) and grostis (grass). Weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis

curvula), from southern Africa, is widely planted in the southwestern United States, for

example.

It is true that it is grown even in Ethiopia's Ilubabor province where the rainfall is very

high, but mostly on steep slopes that quickly shed the runoff.

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and northern China, for instance. It might also become important to Israel, which

has a rising Ethiopian population.

Some observers see tef as a promising new grain for the United States as

well. They point out that it is nutritious enough to be a "health" food and tasty

enough to be a gourmet food.

A company in Idaho already produces it on a

commercial scale and supplies markets nationwide (see box). Tef is also being

produced on farms in Oklahoma, where it is harvested by machine and sold under

contracts from food companies eager to buy it.

These experiences, limited as

they are, are probably laying the groundwork for a mass-produced specialty grain

that will remain a part of the American food system.

USES

Tef grain comes in a range of colors from milky white to almost black, but

its most popular colors are white, red, and brown. By and large, the darker the

color, the richer the flavor. Although blander in taste, the white seeds command

the highest prices. However, the red and brown seeds come from plants that are

hardier, faster maturing, and easier to grow. In addition, tef aficionados prefer

their more robust flavor.

Tef contains no gluten—at least none of the type found in wheat. For this

reason, Americans with severe allergies to wheat gluten are among those buying

tef these days. Despite the seeming lack of this "rising" protein, injera is a puffy

product, somewhere between a flat bread and a raised one.

In Ethiopia, tef flour goes into more than just injera. Some is made into a

gruel (muk), some is baked into cakes and a sweet dry unleavened bread (kita),

and some is used to prepare homemade beverages. In the United States, it is

recommended as a good thickener for soups, stews, and gravies, and, at least

according to one promotional pamphlet, "its mild, slightly molasses-like

sweetness makes tef easy to include in porridge, pancakes, muffins and biscuits,

cookies, cakes, stir fry dishes, casseroles, soups, stews, and puddings."

As fodder, the tef plant is cheap to raise and quick to produce. Its straw is

soft and fast drying. It is both nutritious and extremely palatable to livestock. Its

leaf:stem ratio (average 73:27) is high, its

Israel in recent years has been importing tef from the United States, South Africa, and

Ethiopia.

"I am using it constantly in my cooking—it makes most wonderful waffles and

pancakes, for example," notes botanist Fred Meyer of Washington, D.C.

Information from C.L. Evans.

A recent book, Whole Grain Gourmet, by R. Wood (William Morrow, 1991),

includes many up-scale tef recipes.

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NUTRITIONAL PROMISE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Moisture (g) 11 Cystine 1.9

Food energy (Kc) 336 Isoleucine 3.2

Protein (g) 9.6 Leucine 6.0

Carbohydrate (g) 73 Lysine 2.3

Fat (g) 2.0 Methionine 2.1

Fiber (g) 3.0 Phenylalanine 4.0

Ash (g) 2.9 Threonine 2.8

Vitamin A (RE) 8 Tryptophan 1.2

Thiamin (mg) 0.30 Tyrosine 1.7

Riboflavin (mg) 0.18 Valine 4.1

Niacin (mg) 2.5

Vitamin C (mg) 88

Calcium (mg) 159

Chloride (mg) 13

Chromium (µg) 250

Copper (mg) 0.7

Iron (mg) 5.8

Magnesium (mg) 170

Manganese (mg) 6.4

Phosphorus (mg) 378

Potassium (mg) 401

Sodium (mg) 47

Zinc (mg)

Tef grains are reported to contain 9-11 percent protein, an amount

slightly higher than in normal sorghum, maize, or oats. However, samples

tested in the United States have consistently shown even higher protein

levels: 14-15 percent.

The protein's digestibility is probably high because the main protein

fractions—albumin, glutelin, and globulin—are the most digestible types.

The albumin fraction is particularly rich in lysine. Judging by the response

from Americans allergic to wheat, tef is essentially free of gluten, the protein

that causes bread to rise. Nonetheless, tef used in injera does ''rise" (see

page 219).

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The level of minerals is also good. The average ash content is 3

percent. Tef is reported rich in iron, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.

The iron and calcium contents (11-33 mg and 100-150 mg, respectively) are

higher than those of wheat, barley, or sorghum. In Ethiopia, an absence of

anemia seems to correlate with the levels of tef consumption and is

presumed to be due to the grain's high content of iron.

However, some samples of tef have failed to show the extraordinary

levels of iron. Part of the iron may well come from dust and dirt that clings

almost uncannily to these tiny grains. Washed seeds have shown a level of

iron of about 6 mg, much less than the reported figures but still a

remarkable amount.

TEF 223

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digestibility (65 percent) relatively high, and its protein content (1.95.2

percent) low but nonetheless valuable. Ethiopian farmers rely on it to strengthen

their oxen at the end of winter, a time when fresh grass is unavailable but the

plowing season is coming on.

Tef has as much, or even more, food value than the major grains: wheat, barley, and

maize, for instance. However, this is probably because it is always eaten in the whole-grain

form: the germ and bran are consumed along with the endosperm.

In Ethiopia, tef straw is the preferred binding material for walls, bricks, and

household containers made of clay.

NUTRITION

Tef seeds appear similar to wheat in food value; however, they are actually

more nutritious. There are two reasons for this: (1) the seeds are so tiny that they

have a greater proportion of bran and germ (the outer portions where nutrients are

concentrated); and (2) because the seeds are so small, tef is almost always

produced as a whole-grain flour.

For a grain, tef is rich in energy (353-367 kcal per 100 g). Its fat content

averages about 2.6 percent.

In most samples, the protein content is as good as, or better than, that of

other cereals. It ranges from 8 to 15 percent, averaging 11 percent. The protein,

as in most cereals, is limited by its lysine level. Otherwise, however, it has an

excellent balance of essential amino acids.

Indeed, two nutritionists, having

surveyed all the common foods of Ethiopia, commented: "[W]e want to

draw attention to the high values for methionine and cystine found in tef. . . . The

protein from a mixture of tef and a pulse will give a near optimal amino acid

mixture with regard to both lysine and to the sulfur-containing amino acids."

The vitamin content seems to be about average for a cereal, but making

injera involves a short fermentation process, and the yeasts generate additional

vitamins. The value of the grain is thus enhanced.

The mineral content is also good (average ash content 3 percent). The iron

and calcium contents (0.011-0.033 percent and 0.1-0.15 percent) are especially

notable. In Ethiopia, an absence of anemia seems to correlate with the areas of tef

consumption, presumably due to the grain's good iron content.

Tef fodder is therefore a vital component of Ethiopia's whole farming system, a point

often overlooked by those who consider only the grain. Information from G. Jones.

Refined flour can be made, however. With appropriate screening it can be sifted away

from the bran and the germ. Information from W. Carlson.

In Ethiopia, it is said that a daily intake of one injera pancake supplies enough of

these amino acids to sustain life without another protein source; two are sufficient to

ensure good health.

It is notable that Ethiopians commonly mix fenugreek (abish), lentils, peas (ater). or

faba bean (bakela) with injera batter, a practice that satisfies this nutritional criterion.

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AGRONOMY

Ethiopian farmers grow tef either as a staple or as a standby. As a staple,

they plant it like other cereals, but they normally sow it late and harvest it well

into the dry season. As a standby, they wait until their main crop—maize,

sorghum, or maybe wheat—shows signs of failing. Then they sow a fast-maturing

tef as a backup source of sustenance in case of disaster.

Even where other cereals offer reasonable reliability and substantially higher

yields, Ethiopian farmers still include a field or two of tef. Not only does it bring

them high prices, its late sowing date allows them to grow and harvest both

crops.

In Yemen, tef is known as a lazy man's crop: the farmers merely toss seed

onto moist soil following flash floods and then return after about 45 days to

collect the grain.

No matter how it is grown, tef requires little care once it is established. Its

rapid growth stifles most weeds; few diseases and pests attack it; and it is said to

produce well without added nutrients. However, in most places tef will respond to

fertilizers.

HARVESTING AND HANDLING

Tef threshes well with standard methods and equipment. Very early-

maturing types are ready to harvest in 45-60 days; early types in 60120 days; and

late types in 120-160 days.

Yields range from 300 to 3,000 kg per hectare, or even more. Although the

national average in Ethiopia is 910 kg per hectare, yields of 2,000-2,200 kg per

hectare are considered routinely attainable if good agronomic practices are

carefully followed. Yields of 2,000 kg per hectare have been achieved on South

African farms also, although storms have sometimes leveled the fields, resulting

in large losses.

The grain is easy to store and will survive for many years in traditional

storehouses without damage by insects. This makes it a valuable safeguard

against famine.

Information from Sue Edwards.

Information from H. Moss.

In South Africa it has been found that forage (and no doubt seed) yields improve

dramatically when up to 80 kg of nitrogen are added per hectare. However, the current

varieties put more growth into straw than seed, a feature not necessarily disliked by

farmers. Information from N.F.G. Rethman.

Information from N.F.G. Rethman.

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Injera, the most important bread in Ethiopian cooking, is normally made from tef. It is a thick spongy pancake in which

other food can be sandwiched or rolled. The pancakes are only a few mm thick but can be up to half a meter across. (Panos

picture)

TEF 226

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LIMITATIONS

The seeds are so small that this alone makes the crop hard to deal with. The

fields are tedious to prepare, and it is difficult to get an even stand. Also, wind or

rain can bury the minute seedling before it can establish itself. Threshing,

winnowing, and grinding such tiny seeds by hand is very laborious. Handling and

transporting them is also a problem because they tend to fall through any crack.

NEXT STEPS

Tef seems poised on the brink of becoming a resource for everyday foods,

gluten-free specialty items, animal feeds, and erosion control. Ethiopian farmers,

therefore, have much to teach nations the world over. The problem is that at this

point few people have recognized tef's qualities. Activities are needed to spark

interest and raise overall awareness of tefs status, potential, problems, and

requirements. These could begin, for example, with conferences, monographs,

newsletters, and publicity materials.

Although people in tef's homeland know more about the crop than anyone

else, it is unrealistic to expect that Ethiopia can spearhead such activities, at least

at present. An international global effort is called for. Luckily, tef is not a weed.

Trials can be conducted in different parts of the world with little hazard. Although

many countries could participate, the United States, South Africa, and Australia

especially could help pioneer the selection of types for trials and eventual use

worldwide.

Tef is also a challenge to the world's cereal scientists, agronomists, and food

chemists. It is an interesting new cereal that few people know of at present. It

seems to offer many possible benefits, but what its limits and potentials are in

practice is still very uncertain.

Germplasm Collection and Evaluation

The germplasm in Ethiopia is potentially of worldwide importance. Since

Ethiopia is the center of origin and the center of diversity for this crop, preserving

its diversity is a prerequisite for all tef improvement. Actually, several thousand

samples have already been collected. Although more undoubtedly remain,

perhaps the most urgent task is to characterize the tef lines already available.

Plant Breeding

Until very recently, crossing tef was tedious. It was constrained to a

few minutes at about dawn, and required supremely skillful personnel. Now,

however, techniques have been developed that make the process quite

straightforward and routine.

TEF 227

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TEF PIONEERS

Until recently, Ethiopia's official commitment to tef research has been

small compared with its investment in wheat, maize, and sorghum.

However, several organizations have devoted their own efforts to boost the

crop.

Both the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Centre of Alemaya

University of Agriculture and the Institute of Agricultural Research at Holleta

Research Station near Addis Ababa have produced high-yield strains.

Some of these get so heavy with grain that the stalk collapses.* Research is

now under way to develop varieties with short, stiff straw to create high-

yielding tefs that can benefit from heavy fertilizer use and irrigation without

collapsing.

The Institute for Agricultural Research has also done research on tef

with encouraging results at Debre Zeit. It has developed a variety, DZ

01-946, which has given yields of 1.78 tons per hectare.

There has also been increasing international interest. In England,

London University's Wye College is doing systematic breeding. In Israel, the

Volcani Centre is carrying out tef research trials. And in the United States,

Wayne and Elizabeth Carlson of Caldwell, Idaho, have been developing

cultivars and processing techniques for farmers both domestic and foreign

(see box, opposite).

* This was a problem with early high-yielding wheats until short-stemmed varieties were

bred in Mexico—a combination that led to the Green Revolution varieties that for 20 years

have fed the added millions in Asia who would otherwise have starved.

A program of tef improvement by plant breeding—combining the desirable

qualities of several parents in a planned way—might well bring big advances.

Objectives include early maturity, short and stiff straw, disease resistance, and

higher harvest index.

One variety created in Ethiopia has yielded 3,560 kg per

hectare.

Other targets for improving the crop, especially for large-scale commercial

production, include larger grain size, less shattering of seeds, and quicker drying

seeds.

Agronomy

In Ethiopia, large yield improvements can be achieved by applying

techniques that are already known: careful land prepara

A variety called "munité" seems especially valuable in this regard because it is very

short (40 cm), early maturing, and has a high harvest index.

The ability to harvest drier seeds (than possible at present) would likely reduce

harvest losses and increase tefs acceptance by farmers worldwide.

TEF 228

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TEF IN THE UNITED STATES

Wayne and Elizabeth Carlson are among the handful of non-Ethiopians

who have begun growing tef for food. The crop is thriving on their farm near

Caldwell, Idaho. In the harsh, dry valley on the Idaho-Oregon border, their

fields are now producing Ethiopia's favorite food grain.

Wayne became aware of tef while working as a biologist in Ethiopia. On

returning to the United States, he planted some. Within 5 years the

Carlsons had progressed from growing a few varieties in their backyard to

harvesting 200 acres of four selected strains, as well as threshing, milling,

and packaging thousands of kilos of tef seed each year.

The Carlsons' tef flour now goes to natural-food markets nationwide as

well as to the numerous Ethiopian restaurants that have been springing up

in major cities to serve Americans as well as an estimated 50,000 Ethiopian

immigrants and students. Their long-range goal is to make tef a new option

among America's cereal crops.

Tef's homeland has not been overlooked. Each year the Carlsons

return a portion of the grains they have bred to Ethiopia for trials and for

farmers. Last year, they donated 16,000 kg of seed to a relief agency for

planting in Ethiopia.

Wayne Carlson says that the Western world should pay more attention

to tef. For centuries the plant's adaptability and nutritional value have

helped Ethiopian highlanders maintain their independence in the harsh

surroundings in which they live, he notes.

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tion, use of selected seeds, fertilization, sowing and weeding at the optimum

time, and disease and pest control, for example. Yields can also be increased by

mechanization. Sowing methods require special attention.

TEF IN TRANSVAAL

In 1886, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, obtained tef seed

from Abyssinia and distributed it to various botanic gardens and other

institutions in India and the colonies. In its first issue (1887), Kew's Bulletin

of Miscellaneous Information advocated introducing the crop "to certain hill

stations in India, to elevated portions of our colonial empire, and indeed to

all places where maize and wheat cannot be successfully cultivated."

These efforts stimulated tef trials in various parts of Africa, Asia, and

Australia. As a result, many reports on the plant's performance were

received.

Perhaps the most effective introduction was to the Transvaal (which

was not then under direct British control). Growers there found that "it

makes very rapid growth, maturing in seven or eight weeks from the time of

sowing, and if cut before the seed develops, a second crop can be obtained

from the same stand; it makes an excellent catch-crop for hay, two

successive cuttings being obtainable during the summer on unirrigated

land. The plants seed heavily, our yield of seed from a small plot has been

at the rate of about three-fourths ton per acre [1.875 tons per hectare]; the

seedlings are not readily scorched by the intense heat of summer. On

account of the soft, thin straw, it dries and cures very quickly."

But despite the good results, tef took off only by a fluke. As is usually

the case with new farm crops, it did not sell well when first offered. The

story goes that a farmer, having more tef hay than he required, sent the

surplus to the Johannesburg market. It sold poorly—none of the buyers

knowing the stuff—and it finally went for animal bedding. It is softer than the

ordinary bedding (normally cut from sedges and Arundinella eckloni), and a

buyer

Ornamentals

There is now an explosion of interest in ornamental grasses in Europe, the

United States, and Japan. With its upright, compact habit, its often brilliantly

colored leaves (many color combinations are possible), and open feathery

panicles, tef is exceptionally

TEF 230

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attractive. The development of selected strains might create a small but profitable

market niche as an ornamental.

selected one lot for a racing stable. Rumor has it that the stable owner

found his racers eating their bedding in preference to their feed! To his

surprise they also began to put on condition. Then he bought up all the tef

on the market and called for more. Others soon got wind of this and the

price rose. Tef was accepted and became a fodder of notable importance to

the Transvaal in the early twentieth century. (For instance, during the Boer

War it probably fed the horses on both sides.)

"Tef has raised scores of small Transvaal farmers from poverty to

comparative comfort, and has been largely instrumental in putting the dairy

industry of the Witwatersrand on its feet," wrote Joseph Burtt Davy in the

Kew Bulletin of 1913. "The opinion has been expressed by our farmers that

'if the Division of Botany of the Department of Agriculture had done nothing

else, the introduction and establishment of tef as a farm-crop would have

more than paid South Africa the whole cost of the Division for the ten years

of its existence.' "

In the Transvaal, as well as in other parts of South Africa, tef is often

sown with its relative, weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula). This

perennial has been developed in South Africa into an almost incredible

array of types for land protection and reclamation purposes. It is providing

outstanding erosion control on toxic, dry, degraded, and infertile slag heaps

and other problem sites where nothing previously would grow. As an

erosion-fighting plant, weeping lovegrass is better than tef because it is a

perennial whose natural staying power keeps the land covered as the

seasons go by. But while tef may not be good at such a ''long-distance

event," it is very good as a "sprinter." Thus tef is used to produce a fast

cover that protects the site while its slower cousin is finding its legs.

Forages

In South Africa various productive races have been selected for hay

production. These deserve to be exploited elsewhere. Also, it seems likely that a

wealth of new types, adapted to many

This possibility is already being explored in the United States. Information from W.

Carlson.

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different conditions, can be created from Ethiopia's broad germplasm base.

Erosion Control

It seems likely that demand will increase worldwide for nonweedy annual

grasses that can serve as temporary ground covers. South Africans are now using

tef as a "nurse crop" that quickly covers the ground and fosters the establishment

of perennial grasses sown along with it. This should be tested elsewhere, too. In

South Africa it is already used in mixtures to protect road cuts, open-cast mine

workings, stream banks, and other erodible sites.

Black Cotton Soils

Tef has evolved on the Ethiopian highlands on vertisol (black cotton) soils

that frequently get waterlogged. Few other cereals can be grown there. In fact, tef

is able to withstand wet conditions perhaps better than any cereal other than rice.

It even grows in partly waterlogged plots, as well as on acidic soils.

Vertisols are a problem in many parts of the tropics. They are cracking clays

that regularly heave and sag and split.

Few crop plants can withstand such soil

abuse. Tef might be a savior for such sites. India, in particular, has vast areas of

these "impossible" soils.

SPECIES INFORMATION

Botanical Name

Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter

Synonyms

Poa abyssinica Jacq.; Eragrostis abyssinica (Jacq.) Link

Common Names

Afrikaans: tef, gewone bruin tef (ou bruin)

Arabic: tahf

English: tef, teff, Williams lovegrass

Ethiopia: tafi (Oromo/Afar/Sodo), tafe-e (Had); t'ef, teff, taf(Amarinya,

Tigrinya languages)

French: mil éthiopien

Malawi: chimanganga, ndzungula (Ch), chidzanjala (Lo)

It is often sown with its relative Eragrostis curvula. This perennial has been

developed in South Africa into an almost incredible array of types for land protection and

reclamation purposes. They are providing outstanding erosion control on toxic, dry,

degraded, and infertile slag heaps and other problem sites where nothing previously would

grow. (Information from J.J.P. van Wyk, see research contacts.)

Information from H. Kreiensiek.

Early in the growing season, these soils become waterlogged and go anaerobic; later

they crack and dry out, breaking off the roots of plants that have survived the trauma. They

also get so gooey during the rains that machinery and people cannot move across them.

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Description

Tef is an annual tufted grass, 30-120 cm high, with slender culms and long,

narrow, smooth leaves. It is shallow-rooted. Its inflorescence is a loose or

compact panicle. The extremely small grains are 1-1.5 mm long, and there are

2,500-3,000 seeds to the gram.

The plant employs the C4 photosynthetic pathway, using light efficiently

while having low moisture demands. It is a tetraploid with a chromosome number

of 2n = 40.

Distribution

Tef was grown in Ethiopia before recorded history and its domestication and

early use is lost in antiquity. Its most likely ancestor is Eragrostis pilosa, a wild

species that looks very similar and has the same chromosome number. Samples

claimed to be tef have been found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. The

plant is still harvested in the wild—and wild tef is eaten, sometimes on a

considerable scale, in mixtures with other wild grains (see wild grains chapter,

page 251).

Cultivated Varieties

There are many different types of tef. The narrow panicled "muri" (rat-

tailed) types and the dwarf, semi-prostrate and short-lived "dabi" types, for

example. Both of these differ strikingly from the tall, loose-panicled varieties that

are most commonly grown.

As noted, three main color types are recognized in Ethiopia:

• White tef (thaf hagaiz). This slow-maturing form is grown in the cool

season. It is superior for grain. However, it makes higher demands on the

soil and can be grown only below 2,500 m altitude. In South Africa this

type is being developed as an export grain.

• Red and brown tefs. These are quick maturing and superior for fodder. In

Ethiopia they are usually grown above 2,500 m. Elevation seems

irrelevant, however, because this is the type being used in South Africa as a

fodder crop.

Environmental Requirements

Daylength

The exact requirements are unknown. In South Africa the plant seeds freely

between 22 and 35°S latitude (average daylength, 12 hours). In Ethiopia, the

latitude is between 5°N and 10°N (daylength, 11-13 hours).

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BRINGING THE DEAD TO LIFE . . . . . . JUST ADD WATER

Although the seeds of many flowering plants can survive complete

dehydration, all other plant parts die when they dry. Certain plants,

however, have the seemingly miraculous ability to recover from

desiccation. Within hours of being watered, their leaves, stems, and

sometimes even flowers spring back to life. Tissues that were brown and

seemingly irreparably damaged take up a healthy green color and resume

active growth once again.

No one knows how many species can defy drought in this way, but it is a

small number, and at least four of them are African grasses related to tef.

This suggests that crossbreeding them with tef might yield hybrids

combining the qualities of a good cereal with the ability to withstand the

ultimate drought.

This fascinating possibility of a fail-safe crop that can bounce back from

complete desiccation is being studied by Australian plant physiologist Don

Gaff.* So far, his biggest problem (other than getting funds for such far-out

research) has been to get tef to breed with its "resurrection relatives."

Fertility barriers between the species are too high for natural pollination, so

Gaff has adopted a process known as "somatic hybridization." Using

electrical pulses, he induces cells from the leaves to fuse as if they were

normal pollen and egg cells. To accomplish this, he must first strip the cells

of their cellulose walls. The fused cells resulting from this forced marriage

can be regenerated into whole plants using the techniques of tissue culture.

Although only at the beginning of this challenging work, Gaff has

already found four eligible partners for tef. These are:

• Eragrostis paradoxa. A rare species collected in Zimbabwe, this relatively

low-growing grass with very fine leaves has remarkable resilience and

has survived growing on soils only 1 cm deep.

• Eragrostis hispida. This species, too, was from Zimbabwe and is taller

and has broad, hair-covered leaves.

• Eragrostis nindensis. A vigorous grower, widely distributed in Namibia

and other arid areas of southern Africa, this wild tef is locally valued as

sheep fodder.

• Eragrostis invalida. Gaff's sample of this perennial was collected in the

Tingi Mountains near the Niger River's source in Sierra Leone. Tallest of

the four, it is still only 60 cm high; short rhizomes assist its clumps to

spread.

* Don F. Gaff, Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology, Monash University,

Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia.

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Rainfall

The average annual rainfall in tef-growing areas is 1,000 mm, but the range

is from 300 to 2,500 mm. Tef resists moderate drought, but most cultivars require

at least three good rains during their early growth and a total of 200 to 300 mm of

water. Some rapid-maturing cultivars can obtain the 150 mm they need

from water retained in soils at the end of the normal growing season. Most tef in

South Africa is planted in the 500-800 mm summer rainfall zone.

Altitude

Tef can be grown from near sea level to altitudes over 3,000 m. It is

particularly valued for areas too cold for sorghum or maize.

It has a wider

altitudinal range than any other cereal in Ethiopia. Most is cultivated between

1,100 and 2,950 m.

Low Temperature

While tef has some frost tolerance, it will not survive a prolonged freeze.

High Temperature

Tef tolerates temperatures (at its lower altitudinal range) well above 35°C.

Soil Type

Tefs tolerance of soil types seems to be very wide. As noted, it performs

well even on the black cotton soils that are notoriously hostile to crops and

farmers. In fact in South Africa it is already very popular on such soils.

Soil

acidities below pH 5 are apparently no problem for tef.

In Lesotho, for instance, it occurs at altitudes up to 2,000 m, where temperatures drop

to -15°C. Information from H. Kreiensiek.

It is, for example, grown with irrigation at Gode on the Wadi Shebele River in the

Ogaden where the temperature reaches 50°C.

The farmers, however, use twice the normal seeding rate. Information from N.F.G.

Rethman.

Information from H. Kreiensiek.

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Other Cultivated Grains

Some of the neglected cereals described previously—sorghum, finger

millet, and pearl millet, for example—are not, strictly speaking, "lost." But there

are a number of African food grains that are indeed truly overlooked by all of

modern science. Most of these come from wild grasses (see next chapter), but

some are from plants cultivated by farmers on at least a small scale. These last,

Africa's least known grain crops, are discussed here.

GUINEA MILLET

Guinea millet (Brachiaria deflexa) is perhaps the world's most obscure

cereal crop. It is cultivated by farmers only in the Fouta Djallon plateau, a rather

remote region of northwestern Guinea. Little, if anything, has been done to

improve this crop, yet where it is grown the people value it highly. They grind its

soft seeds into a flour, which is used for cakes and fritters.

Although this domesticated plant is grown only in this one area of the

Guinea highlands, the wild form is spread throughout the Sahelian zone from

Senegal to the Horn of Africa as well as in coastal savannas from Ivory Coast to

Cameroon. This wild form is also harvested for food.

The main difference

between the two is that the cultivated type has much larger grains and is

nonshattering (holds its seeds).

This plant grows to about I m tall, and looks so much like fonio (see Chapter 3)

that for decades it was classified as just a special fonio variety.

However, it has

botanical differences and bears larger grains.

Although unstudied by agronomists, guinea millet appears to have useful

characteristics. For instance, some types mature so quickly

Another wild relative (Brachiaria stigmatisata), found from the Gambia to the Sudan,

is widely gathered as a cereal as well.

This was previously considered a cultivar of fonio (Digitaria exilis, see fonio chapter,

page 59). Locally, it is often called "fonio with thick seeds."

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 237

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Brachiaria species, thought to be guinea millet, growing in Fouta Djallon region

of Guinea. (B. Simpson)

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they take only 70-75 days from planting to harvest (most, however, require

90-130 days). Commonly, farmers use these fast-maturing guinea millets to fill in

any gaps in their fields of sorghum, maize, or other grains. This allows them to

get a full harvest from those fields.

To achieve truly quick growth, however, a

rich and well-drained soil is required.

Guinea millet deserves recognition and attention from scientists and others

interested in helping food production and agriculture across West Africa. Despite

its current obscurity, it just might have a big future both there and in other

regions.

EMMER

Emmer (Triticum dicoccum) is not strictly African; it is a wheat that

originated in the Near East. Indeed, it was one of the first cereals ever

domesticated

and was part of the early agriculture of the Fertile Crescent.

Farmers had it in fields perhaps as far back as 10,000 years ago. For several

thousand years it remained a major cereal throughout the Middle East and North

Africa. Then people switched to durum wheat—the type now used worldwide to

make spaghetti, macaroni, and other pastas. In fact, durum wheat (Triticum

turgidum var. durum) probably originated from emmer by mutation. Farmers

preferred it because its grain was free-threshing (the seed fell out of its husk quite

easily), and during the past 2,000 years or so the older form, emmer, became an

abandoned waif.

Despite its Middle Eastern origin, emmer nonetheless has an ancient African

heritage. It reached Ethiopia probably 5,000 years ago, perhaps more, and it

survives there to this day.

Whereas it virtually disappeared elsewhere, emmer

comprises almost 7 percent of Ethiopia's entire wheat production. Even in what is a

major, modern, wheat-growing region, it remains important. Indeed, far from

abandoning it, farmers in Ethiopia's highlands have over the last 40 years

increased the percentage of emmer that they grow.

Emmer, locally known as aja, is used in various ways. Some is ground into a

flour and baked into a special bread (kita). Some is crushed and cooked with milk

or water to make a porridge (genfo). And some is mixed with boiling water and

butter to produce a gruel. With emmer's high protein content and smooth, easily

digested starch, the gruel is especially favored by invalids and nursing mothers.

Portères, 1976.

Together with two-rowed barley (see page 245) and einkorn (Triticum

monococcum). which, like emmer, is a predecessor of modern wheat.

It also survives as a crop in a small way in Yugoslavia, India, Turkey, Germany

(Bavaria), France, and other countries. Information from J. Harlan.

Tesemma, 1986.

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RESURRECTING BIBLICAL WHEATS

Emmer (see previous page) is just one of several ancient wheats that

could help the modern world. Two others are being rescued in Europe. The

efforts summarized below could be the spur for similar endeavors to bring

emmer back as a major crop as well.

Einkorn

Until recently everyone thought that einkorn, perhaps the earliest of all

cultivated wheats, was essentially extinct. But in 1989, botanist Jacques

Barrau reported the following experience in the south of France.

"In 1971, I decided to look at all the food plants in the mountains of

Vaucluse, where my father's family had its origin. From childhood

memories, I knew that a kind of porridge was a popular peasant dish there

in winter. I started looking for the cereal used for that purpose and found to

my surprise that it was the neolithic [Stone Age] einkorn, Triticum

monococcum. The crop was still being grown there, as well as in some

localities in the Southern Alps, as a subsistence cereal of which the

unground grain was used to prepare this special porridge. This was

unknown to my learned friends in French agricultural research.

"Today, this relict prehistoric wheat is beginning to find markets as a

'natural health-food,' and it sells at a price rather satisfying for the stubborn

traditional growers who, through generations, had kept it in cultivation, just

to satisfy their lasting taste for this porridge."

Spelt

For the Stone Age inhabitants of what is now south Germany, spelt

(Triticum spelta) was the main food source. Later, however, this primitive

winter cereal was abandoned—not because of inferiority but because

farmers found other wheats easier to grow. For one thing, spelt's grain had a

close-fitting husk that made it harder to thresh, and its very long straw

meant that summer winds could blow the plants down.

Now, spelt (or dinkel as it is usually called in Germany) is coming back

as a crop. In this case, the driving forces behind its return are modern

consumer preferences—notably the rising appreciation for good nutrition

and for protecting the environment. Nutritionally speaking, spelt is very

exciting. Breadmaking wheats in northern Europe generally contain around

11 percent

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protein. Spelt averages between 14 and 15 percent; some types have

even exceeded 17 percent. The grain also has greater concentrations of

minerals and vitamins. Even with its lower yield, spelt can produce more

protein per hectare than modern breadwheat. And a growing number of

consumers are acclaiming the ''nutty" taste of products baked from spelt

flour.

Spelt's environmental advantages are proving even more important.

"The kernel is protected against fungi or insects by the close-fitting husk,"

explains Christof Kling, head of wheat breeding at Hohenheim University in

Stuttgart. "This means the crop is very appropriate for use in

environmentally sensitive areas or where farmers want to use less

pesticide, or even none at all."

In the old days, when people had to thresh grain by hand, the very

attribute that helps to protect the grain against pests and diseases—the

close-fitting husk—was an overwhelming disadvantage. But in our

mechanized era it is inconsequential.

Like einkorn and emmer, spelt never disappeared entirely, but until

recently it was grown in only a few isolated pockets in Germany, Belgium,

Switzerland, and Austria. Now all that has changed. In fact, enthusiasm for

this long-lost grain is so high that spelt in the early 1990s is being cultivated

on over 6,000 hectares in Germany alone. Indeed, a special organization

(the Dinkelacker Foundation) has been established to help foster this

prodigal son's return from the Stone Age.

Emmer

Recently, researchers in Syria have become excited over emmer.

Samples gathered from different parts of the country grew surprisingly well

when planted at two ecologically different locations (Tel Hadya and Breda).

A wealth of qualities soon became apparent. The researchers concluded

that their samples were: "an important genetic reservoir of variability for

useful characters such as earliness, short stem, high number of fertile tillers

[see picture overpage], long spikes, dense spikes, high number of seeds

per spike, weight of kernels per spike, and protein content."

They also noted that most of the emmers exhibited traits suitable for

cultivation in the arid areas. "Tolerance to drought is also one of [the] traits,

which could be used in breeding wheat for the dry areas," they said.

* This work was conducted by S. Hakim and M. Y. Moualla at Tishreen University,

Lattakia, and by A. B. Damania at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the

Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo.

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 241

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Emmer. This sample, with its remarkable number of separate seedheads

(tillers), was discovered by researchers in Syria when a small collection of

emmer seeds was planted at two ecologically different locations (see previous

page). In addition to having more than 20 seedheads, this plant tolerates drought

and its grain has a protein content of 18-21 percent. (A.B. Damania)

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This "cereal that refuses to die" deserves better treatment from science and

commerce. Its economic importance in Ethiopia alone makes it worthy of

research attention. However, there might also be worldwide interest. Already,

small projects to restore it to widespread modern use are under way in the United

States and France (see box). The plant grows in a wide range of environments and

can be produced in many parts of the world. The fact that it is the wheat family's

"living fossil," little changed from wheat eaten in the times of the Bible and the

Koran could give it special consumer appeal. But it can also stand on its own

culinary merits. Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) wrote that emmer wheat makes the

"sweetest bread," and even today its virtues are hailed with similar plaudits.

On the face of it, emmer might also benefit the world's wheat-breeding

programs. Already, its genes have conferred on the American wheat crop

resistance to rust, a virulent fungal disease that in earlier times periodically

devastated the nation's food supply.

Its other desirable characteristics include

early maturity, drought resistance, and a high protein content.

BARLEY

Although barley (Hordeum vulgare) is probably not a native of Africa

either, it also has been used in Ethiopia for at least 5,000 years. Indeed, Ethiopian

barleys have been isolated so long that two of them, irregular barley and deficient

barley, were for a time considered distinct species.

Among these two genotypes, as well as among the rest of the diversity of

barley forms, can be found a wealth of promising types in addition to genes for

use in the world's barley crop. In fact, Ethiopia's assorted barleys are said to be a

vital part of its cultural heritage. Under normal circumstances each family sticks

tenaciously to its own seed stock. Thus, over thousands of years, each family's

stocks have evolved along separate and divergent lines and a vast diversity has

resulted. Today, the fields are amazingly rich in different types. In fact, each

farmer usually cultivates complex mixtures or even separate plots of quite

distinct barleys.

Barley ranks third in terms of area (after tef and sorghum) in Ethiopia.

However, its value goes far beyond just economics and nutrition. It is, in fact,

deeply rooted in the cultural life. The Oromo people, for instance, consider it the

holiest of crops. Their songs and

For example, severe rust epidemics wiped out vast acreages of wheat in 1904, 1918,

1935, and 1953, each time sowing fear and high prices. In 1918, the harvest was so bad

that the U.S. government had to declare "wheatless days," on which no wheat products

could be sold.

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ETHIOPIAN BARLEY IN NEW MEXICO

Although Ethiopia's barley is all but unknown elsewhere, at least one

overseas group has attempted to grow it, and with considerable success. In

the dry southwestern quarter of the United States, the Ghost Ranch, a

facility sponsored by the Presbyterian church, has been growing it as one

of its main cereal crops since 1983. Following are comments by the farm's

manager. The photograph was taken after the 1991 harvest.

We grow Ethiopian barley at our experimental farm in the northern

mountains of New Mexico. We grow it for three main reasons: it matures

quickly (about 110 days); it is hull-less; and it is the most drought-tolerant

grain we've ever had. In addition, it has been almost trouble free. We've

never experienced a problem with lodging. The plant tillers very well and

produces good yields in most years. We haven't had any problems with

disease, which might be only because our farm is isolated and the nearest

barley grower is about 50 km away.

We thresh the dry grain in a small homemade threshing machine or an

old combine employed as a stationary thresher. It threshes easily. The seed

is then cleaned in a seed-cleaning machine. (Both the threshing machine

and the seed cleaner run off our solar electric system.) The grain mills

nicely and produces a flour that has good baking and eating qualities.

Lynda S. Prim

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sayings often feature this "king of grains." Everyone in the highlands

encourages children to consume lots of barley. It makes them brave and

courageous, they say.

Ethiopians turn barley into bread, porridge, soup, beer, and many other

foods. A favorite snack is roasted unripe barley seed. Several types are made into

various barley-water drinks, most of them nonalcoholic.

These beverages (made

of water infusions of roasted and ground grains) are highly valued. Also, some

intoxicating liquors (areuie ) are home brewed from barley grains.

Ethiopians draw clear associations between each grain type and its use. The

white large-grained forms are preferred for porridges. The white, black, or purple

large-grained types are made into bread and other baked foods. Partially naked

grains are usually roasted or fried. Small-grained types (mainly black and purple)

are used for beverages.

Barley is also important to the country's livestock. The grain itself is

sometimes fed. (Wealthy farmers, for instance, use it to fatten horses and mules

before and after long journeys or to strengthen cattle before the plowing season

or going to market.) But more commonly, the animals end up eating the straw.

Finely broken barley straw is also employed in constructing mud walls.

For all its importance, however, Ethiopia's barley production can be

strengthened. A vast store of indigenous germplasm has yet to be tapped. Indeed,

some of it is being lost. (This genetic erosion is happening mainly as farmers

switch to crops such a bread wheat, tef, and recently, oats.)

Some of Ethiopia's barley could be made more useful by genes of the

barleys developed elsewhere in the world. But the multitude of local types offer

great opportunities on their own accounts. Many are unique. Even the number of

rows of grains on the seedhead (spike) can be unique. Everywhere else in the

world, barleys have exactly two rows or six rows. However, Ethiopia's irregular

barley has two full rows as well as parts of other rows. And its deficient barley

has two full rows, but the lateral spikelets are greatly reduced or are wanting

entirely.

Although essentially unknown elsewhere, irregular barley

ranks fourth

among Ethiopia's crops, both in quantity produced and area planted.

At altitudes

above 2,500 m it is usually the only cereal that

The ancients had similar traditions. Greeks, for example, are said to have fed much

barley to gladiators. Roman gladiators were called "hordearii" in the belief that barley was

the source of their strength.

A popular trail food is roasted and ground barley. The traveler can stop at any stream,

stir the powder into a cup or gourd of water, and have "instant barley water."

It is also known as Abyssinian intermediate barley. It occurs also in Yemen, Arabia,

and Egypt, but only as a very minor crop.

Hailu and Pinto, 1977.

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THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLETS

Whereas today's most reliable approach to advancing little-known

grains is conventional plant breeding, biotechnology might soon be able to

leapfrog much of the tedious and time-consuming toil traditionally involved

in creating new varieties. Here we identify a few possibilities.

Because they are well known in scientifically advanced countries,

wheat, rice, maize, and (to a lesser extent) sorghum have benefited from

high-tech research. Millets, however, remain almost exclusively resources

of countries with little or no basic research capacity. Millets have therefore

barely benefited from the latest instruments and techniques. Given such

attention, it seems likely that they can be leapfrogged into the twenty-first

century using biotechnology.

This is especially important to Africa, where the needs are so vast and

diverse, the resources so few, the time so pressing, the conditions so

changeable, and the priorities so uncertain that conventional plant

breeding, which can take 10-12 years to perfect a new variety, may not be

up to the task. Certainly, its ability to breed for genetically complex

attributes such as drought tolerance is limited. Moreover, in environments

such as the Sahel, where climatic variables far outweigh genetic ones,

plant breeding is all but impossible to do in the normal way in field trials.

When it comes to Africa, then, biotechnology could have a huge

impact. For example, breeding can be done more quickly, it can be done

indoors in controlled environments, and it can be done with greater

precision. Increasingly, biotechnology can deal with genetically complex

traits. In sum, technologies such as tissue culture, anther culture, embryo

rescue, protoplast fusion, and genetic markers are likely to bring undreamed

of breakthroughs that will transform Africa's native grains.

The key to this gene revolution is to develop tissue-culture techniques

for each of Africa's grains. If scientists can grow mature, fertile plants from

tissues of pearl millet, finger millet, fonio, irregular barley, and tef, they will

open doors to the more rapid development of these cereals. Grasses are

difficult to culture—so difficult, in fact, that not long ago they were

considered impossible—but rice, maize, sorghum, and vetiver have already

succumbed and can be grown routinely in tissue culture. Now it seems

likely that the right conditions can be discovered for the others.

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 246

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Once tissue culture has been established, a major challenge will be to

"map" the chromosomes using genetic "markers." Knowing the physical

location of particular genes will result in many shortcuts to improved

strains. This is particularly because thousands of young seedlings can be

tested for the presence of specific genes, rather than waiting for the genes

to express themselves in the mature plant. It will also allow desirable genes

to be more easily transferred, and undesirable ones to be eliminated. The

markers could be provided by the restriction-fragment length polymorphism

(RFLP) technique (see box, page 34), a process already being applied to

maize, barley, and rice.

Following are examples of the gains to be achieved:

Drought Resistance. Breeding drought-resistant varieties has always

been difficult because researchers had no way to determine genetic

influences on the basic mechanisms of drought injury and tolerance. In

basic studies, biotechnology is now helping to show how water stress

affects the physiological, biochemical, and molecular organization of plants

during their various life stages.

In future, the new techniques could target the genes that govern rooting

depth, water extraction, and root penetration of compacted soil layers. Once

identified and mapped, the genes for these characteristics (which are

extremely difficult to evaluate in the field) could be readily tracked in

breeding programs. This would lead to crops with much higher drought

tolerance.

Striga. An ability to manipulate the genes that attract or repel the striga

parasite could boost cereal yields continent-wide.

Hybrids. Biotechnology would make it much easier to make hybrids

within and between species. This might be brought about through chemical

hybridizing agents, through clonally propagating sterile seed, or through

embryo rescue.

As work progresses on the major crops in the world's most

sophisticated laboratories, millets should not be overlooked. Pioneers

pushing the frontiers of gene manipulation in wheat, maize, and rice, for

example, should not leave the millets trailing so far behind that they will be

abandoned willy-nilly. Actually, the high-tech equipment and powerful

genetic tools could likely help make major advances in millets and thereby

bring more humanitarian benefits than in all the rest of the work.

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 247

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can be cultivated satisfactorily. It is very important throughout most of the

upper highlands, for example, where it accounts for about 60 percent of the

population's total plant food. Farmers in that area rely on fast-maturing types to

save their families from starving during food shortages.

This is just one example of the genetic wealth to be found among Ethiopia's

barleys. Other traits include:

• High yields. Some Ethiopian barleys have big and heavy kernels, some

plants tiller (send up multiple shoots and seedheads) very well, and others

mature quickly.

• High nutrition. Some have high levels of protein and a few are high in

lysine and are thus exceptionally nutritious. They are the only known

source of quality-protein barley.

• Disease resistance. Several have resistance to diseases such as powdery

mildew, leaf rust, net blotch, Septoria, scald, spot blotch, loose smut,

barley yellow dwarf virus, and barley stripe mosaic virus.

• Drought resistance. Many have the ability to grow under dry conditions

—a feature apparently related to deep and efficient root types.

• Tolerance to marginal soils.

• Resistance to barley shoot fly and aphids.

• Vigorous seedling establishment.

On the other hand, Ethiopia's barleys tend to blow down easily due to weak

straw and tall, spindly growth. Some specimens suffer from the condition known

as "fragile rachis," in which the seed spike breaks apart and spills the seeds on the

ground.

The outside world's barley breeders have not neglected Ethiopia's materials.

For example, they employ the accession called Jet (jetblack seeds) to obtain

resistance to loose smut, a severe fungal disease. In the United States and several

other countries they have employed the genes for resistance to the extremely

damaging barley yellow dwarf virus, leading to great savings in grain yields. But

many more useful types remain to be employed both at home and abroad.

ETHIOPIAN OATS

Ethiopia also has a native oats, Avena abyssinica. Partially domesticated in

the distant past, this species is largely nonshattering—that is, it retains most of its

grain so farmers can harvest them conveniently.

See companion report, Quality-Protein Maize. Quality-protein barleys are rich in

amino acids, such as lysine. that are vital to human nutrition and yet normally deficient in

cereals. They have been called "Hi-proly" by the Danish food scientists who have studied

them most. (For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.)

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 248

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It has long been used in Ethiopia and is well adapted to the high elevations

and other conditions there. It is, however, unknown elsewhere. With a rising

international interest in oats this little-known species deserves research attention.

Unlike common oats (Avena sativa), which is a hexaploid, Ethiopian oats is a

tetraploid. It is seldom grown as a solitary crop; it is almost always sown in a

mixture with barley. Agriculturists may classify it as a weak-stemmed "weed,"

but not the farmers. They harvest the two grains together and use them mainly in

mixtures. These mixtures generally end up in injera (the flat national bread; see

last chapter), local beer (tala), and other products. Some are roasted and eaten as

snacks.

However, some people don't appreciate Ethiopian oats because the plant is

not fully domesticated and does shatter somewhat. It is also fully fertile with the

weed Avena vaviloviana, which creates swarms of weedy hybrids that shatter a

lot.

Nonetheless, Ethiopian native oats deserves research attention and a chance

to prove itself.

KODO MILLET

Although wild forms of kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) occur in

Africa, the plant is not grown as a crop there. However, domesticated forms have

been developed in southern India, where they are planted quite widely. This is

therefore a plant in the very process of domestication, and the cultivated forms

could have an important future in Africa as well.

The wild form is common across tropical Africa (as well as across wetter

parts of the Asian tropics from Indonesia to Japan). It is often abundant along

paths, ditches, and low spots, especially where the ground is disturbed (which

accounts for the reason it is sometimes called ditch millet).

Although kodo millet frequently infests rice fields in West Africa, it is

tolerated even there. Many farmers actually take pleasure in seeing it in their

plots. Should the rice crop fail or do poorly, they will not have lost everything ...

the field will likely end up choked with kodo millet, which can then be harvested

for food. In this sense, the weed becomes a lifesaver for a subsistence-farming

family.

All in all, this is another obscure cereal deserving greater modern research

and recognition. Two technical problems to evaluate are an ergotlike fungal

disease and the probable presence of antinutritional compounds.

Specimens from these two species. as well as the hybrid between them. have also

been referred to as the species Avena barbara Pott.. from which the Ethiopian species may

have been derived.

OTHER CULTIVATED GRAINS 249

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Wild Grains

Over large areas of Africa people once obtained their basic subsistence from

wild grasses. In certain places the practice still continues—especially in drought

years (see boxes, pages 258 and 264). One survey records more than 60 grass

species known to be sources of food grains.

Despite their widespread use and notable value for saving lives during times

of distress, these wild cereals have been largely overlooked by both food

scientists and plant scientists. They have been written off as ''obsolete"—doomed

since hunting and gathering started giving way to agriculture thousands of years

ago. Certainly there has been little or no thought of developing wild grains as

modern foods.

This deserves reconsideration, however. Gathering grains from grasslands is

among the most sustainable organized food production systems in the world. It

was common in the Stone Age

and has been important almost ever since,

especially in Africa's drylands. For millennia people living in and about the

Sahara, for instance, gathered grass seeds on a grand scale. And they continued to

do so until quite recently. Early this century they were still harvesting not

insignificant amounts of their food from native grasslands.

However, in previous centuries the grains of the deserts and savannas were

harvested in enormous quantities. In the Sahel and Sahara, for example, a single

household might collect a thousand kilos during the harvest season.

The seeds

were piled in warehouses by the ton and shipped out of the region by the

caravan-load. It was a major enterprise and a substantial export from an area that

now has no equivalent and is often destitute.

Much of this chapter is based on a review by Jack Harlan (Harlan, 1989).

Jardin, 1967.

Many of the stone (Mesolithic) implements found in archeological sites throughout the

Sahara were probably created for harvesting wild grass seeds. Some are still used. Modern

desert dwellers, for example, find it convenient to employ ancient grindstones they find at

archeological sites instead of carrying their own from camp to camp. Information from J.

Harlan.

Nicolaisen, 1963.

WILD GRAINS 251

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HOW THE MILLETS AROSE

It is not illogical to think that at least some of the wild grasses in this

chapter might be turned into tractable crops for farm fields and household

gardens. It has been done in the past . . . by our Stone Age forebears, no

less.

Between 12,000 and 6000 B.C., most of the Sahara appears to have

been perfectly hospitable to humans. What is today the world's most

fearsome desert then enjoyed a mild climate, winter rainfall, and an

extensive grass cover. Acacia and tamarisk trees lined the many water

courses. Mountainsides were verdant woodlands of myrtle, oak, hackberry,

and olive, with juniper and pines at the upper altitudes.*

By 10,000 B.C. people inhabited the area. A scattering of Neolithic

(New Stone Age) sites across the central Sahara provide evidence that they

were using sickles and grinding equipment, which suggests that they were

using the grasses. By 6000 B.C. the central Sahara people were definitely

collecting wild grain as well as apparently hunting wildlife and herding

livestock. The vast grasslands provided game as well as limitless grazing

for cattle, sheep, and goats. Shallow lakes—occupying wide, flat pans—

enlarged during the rains and provided plentiful food from fish,

hippopotamus, and aquatic plants, including African rice.

But then, after about 4000 B.C., the region began drying out. The

desert as we know it today had begun to form. Few archeological sites from

this period are found, and the people apparently had been forced to leave.

But before they left, they had time to domesticate some of the grasses

around them during the thousands of years the rather sedentary, herding-

fishing-hunting people occupied the Sahara. Several cereals seem to have

arisen there. African rice, fonio, pearl millet, sorghum, and perhaps finger

millet got their start this way.

Those ancients did a miraculous job, considering they had no

knowledge of genetics, microorganisms, chemistry, nutrition, or the myriad

other sciences we now consider vital for domesticating and developing

crops. Nor did they have ready access to the variety of germplasm that any

scientist today would demand. If they could do it, surely we can.

* All this is suggested by numerous pollen samples dug up in the Tibesti and Haggar massifs

in the heart of the Sahara.

WILD GRAINS 252

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But in modern times these wild grains have been neglected and even much

maligned. Various writers repeatedly refer to them as "famine foods." This is

obviously wrong. Where the grains were gathered, surplus was often the rule.

Wild grains were eaten even when pearl millet was in oversupply, for instance.

Modern writings also imply that the wild-grass grains were eaten only in

desperation when nothing else was available. This, too, is apparently false. The

harvest was large scale, sophisticated, and commercial: it must have been founded

upon a keen and constant demand. Indeed, all evidence suggests that the grains

were a delicacy that even the wealthier classes considered a luxury.

Remnants of this once vast and highly organized production still linger. One

observer pointed out that harvests of wild grains were still being carried out in

1968, at least 60 years after they had last been major contributors to the local

diet.

However, despite its former prestige and ancient heritage, the wild-grain

harvest has been declining for a century or more.

A major reason for the decline is that the once vast stands of grasses are

much reduced. Partly this results from the demise of the nomads. Sedentary life

encourages continuous and localized grazing so that the plants never get a chance

to form grains. Partly, too, the decline results from the breakdown of traditional

authority. Formerly, chieftains banned grazing animals from certain areas while

the wild grains were filling out. If camels were caught there during that time, the

chieftain could slaughter one of them in recompense; if goats were caught, he

could kill as many as 10.

Just because wild grasses no longer contribute greatly to Africa's food does

not mean they should be disregarded. Even preliminary study is likely to turn up

many fascinating possibilities and perhaps much future potential. Many come

from locations where burning temperatures, scant rains, and ravenous insects

make the better-known grains impossible to produce. Some can populate and

stabilize sand dunes—perhaps even the juggernaut dunes that threaten to bury

oases, farms, villages, roads, and towns. Forged upon the unforgiving anvil of

survival, these wild grasses are clearly suited to the worst of conditions.

In fact, plants like these—inured to harshness and constantly pressured by

pathogens, pests, severe weather, and harsh soils—are just the sort of resources

the world needs for overcoming some of its most intractable environmental

problems. For example, some of Africa's wild cereals might be especially good

weapons for combating desertification. Indeed, resurrecting the ancient grain-

gathering industry could well be a way to defeat land degradation across the

worst

Gast, 1968.

WILD GRAINS 253

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afflicted areas of the Sahel and its neighboring regions. A vast and vigorous

grain-gathering enterprise, for instance, would ensure that once again the grass

cover is kept in place and that overgrazing is controlled once more.

Such a possibility is not inconceivable. Wild cereals might be made into an

everyday food source, a famine reserve, and perhaps even a specialty export

crop. This last may seem unlikely, but it should at least be considered. Today, the

overall situation is different from that of a century ago. Railroads and airfreight

mean that grains can now be shipped from the Sahara with much greater ease than

on the backs of camels. Moreover, consumers in affluent nations are increasingly

interested in buying and trying "exotic" cuisines. And many people of goodwill

are highly motivated and eager to help avoid the horrendous tragedies of Sahelian

drought and famine they have witnessed on their television screens in recent

decades.

A similar concept is being attempted as a way to combat the destruction of

tropical rainforests. In the last few years, for instance, an international trade in

special tropical-forest products has begun. The object is to foster an economy

based on resources of the rainforest itself. If successful, it will generate powerful

local disincentives for destroying the natural environment.

In the case of the rainforest, the products are such things as wild rubber,

fruits, nuts, and vegetable-ivory buttons. In the case of Africa's desertifying

areas, the product might be kreb.

Kreb is perhaps the most famous food of the Sahara. A complex of a dozen

or more different wild grains, it was harvested from natural meadows. Its

composition varied from place to place and probably from year to year,

depending on the mix of grasses that grew.

These days, given some clever marketing, "kreb from the Sahara" might sell

at premium prices in Europe, North Africa, and North America, for example. It

would be seen as a gourmet food that provides income to nomads and protects the

earth's most fragile lands from further destruction by keeping a cover of wild

native grasses on them.

Although this idea is highly speculative, subject to many limitations and

uncertainties, it is not beyond reason. Mixed-grain products are not uncommon in

Western supermarkets these days. For instance, in the United States a popular

breakfast cereal is a grain mixture that people boil in water like rice. (It is made

from conventional grains but goes by the trade name "Kashi," another word for

kreb.

) And some expensive breads are made from as many as 11 different

grains.

The pamphlet in each box explains: "Kashi, the breakfast pilaf, is a specially

formulated pure blend of whole oats, long grain brown rice, whole rye, triticale, hard red

winter wheat, raw buckwheat, slightly hulled barley, and mechanically dehulled sesame

seeds; 100 percent quality whole grains that are not cut, cracked, rolled or flaked nor

creamy or mushy when cooked."

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Resurrecting the production of kreb could provide food, income, and

perhaps a protection against famine. It might bring substantial environmental

benefits as well. Many of the wild African grains come from perennial grasses

that continuously cover the soil and protect it from water and wind erosion. In

addition, these plants facilitate the infiltration of rainfall and prevent rapid runoff

from desert downpours early in the season, a time when annuals are still getting

started and much of the soil around them is exposed and hard. Moreover,

perennial crops have long growing seasons and the extra solar energy they collect

normally produces good grain yields. (This is why some hybrids, including maize

hybrids, have been so productive.)

Native perennials might prove to have economic benefits as well. Perennials

save the vast amount of energy and labor that farmers must put in each year to

move soil for planting and tilling annual cereals. Also, they save on the often

large amount of grains that must be put aside each year for planting—with a

perennial, those can be eaten.

Beyond their direct use as cereals, Africa's wild grasses may also have

international value as genetic resources. Some are related to species used

elsewhere for food or fodder and are likely to have genes of international

importance—particularly because many of them have outstanding tolerance and

resistance to heat, drought, drifting sand, and disease. On the other hand, some

might prove weedy when taken out of the desert and introduced to more

salubrious situations.

The nutritional value of wild-grass seeds has seldom been studied in detail,

but those analyses that have been made indicate that protein contents are usually

considerably higher than that of cultivated cereals. Several Saharan grains, for

instance, have protein contents of 17-21 percent, roughly twice that of today's

main cultivated cereals.

All cereals are low in vitamins A, D, C, B, and the amino acids lysine and

tryptophan. Wild grass seeds are no exception. However. some may be unusually

high in food energy. Certain kram-kram seeds, for instance, apparently have

about 9 percent fat and are perhaps higher in energy than any other cereal grain.

Africa's promising wild cereals include those described below. All of these

deserve the attention of food and agricultural scientists, as well as of the people

involved in battling Sahelian desertification. Even the most basic studies could be

extremely valuable. These include the following:

• Tests to determine how best to plant and establish each species (seed

treatments, sowing depths, planting times, and so on);

Busson, 1965. Much of the difference may be due to their small seed size.

Domesticated grains are usually bigger, and the increase is primarily due to endosperm,

which is largely starch.

Busson. 1965.

WILD GRAINS 257

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HARVESTING WILD GRASSES

To most people, it probably seems inconceivable that in this age of

intensive agriculture, wild grasses are still being gathered. The following

(adapted from a recent FAO report) gives a sense of the ongoing

importance of wild grains in different parts of Africa.

Niger

On their way from the wet- to the dry-season pastures, the Tuareg of

Niger regularly harvest wild cereals. The grains, collectively known as

ishiban, include desert panic (Panicum laetum) and shama millet

(Echinochloa colona). Women do most of the gathering, and around

harvest time groups of five or six women often go off for a week or so to

gather wild grains (as well as fruits, gum arabic, and other wild products).

They collect the grains in different ways:

• If the seed is ripe and ready to fall, they harvest early in the morning

when dew tends to hold the seed in the inflorescence. They swing a

deep, cone-shaped basket through the tops of the plants to gather the

grain.

• If the seed is not ripe enough to fall, they first cut the grass and then dry,

thresh, and winnow the grain as if it were a domesticated cereal

• If the seed has already ripened and fallen, they cut or burn the stands,

and later sweep the seeds up off the ground. (This spoils the taste and

adds soil and pebbles, but the harvesters often have no choice.)

• Sometimes the women search for seeds in ant nests and termite

mounds. In desperate times, such as the terrible drought of the 1970s,

they even dig down to the ants' subterranean storehouses.

Sudan

The Zaghawa of the Sudan and Chad harvest many annual grasses for

food and beer. These include Egyptian grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium),

desert panic, shama millet, wild tef (Eragrostis pilosa), and wild rice (Oryza

breviligulata). Kram-kram (Cenchrus biflorus) and Tribulus terrestris seeds

are used only during famine. The women generally use the grains for their

own

258

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families, but they sell some as well. The Zaghawa spend a month or

two in the areas where the wild cereals grow, often returning with three or

four camel loads of grain. The various sites are visited several times, at

intervals of 15-30 days. The earliest harvests usually yield the most. There

is much communal cooperation. The women mentally mark off areas for

themselves, cut the grass, and pile it up to dry. To foil any goats or wildlife,

they cover their piles with thorny branches, and to guard against theft, they

leave a symbolic stone representing each woman's clan. Livestock are

barred from these areas until after the grain harvest, and herders are fined

if any animals get in. It appears that the gathering actually helps maintain a

good stand of wild cereals, because less useful plants (especially kram-

kram) are taking over the areas where gathering is no longer practiced.

Zambia

The Tonga of Zambia routinely harvest the grains of wild sorghum and

Egyptian grass, and during famines they also harvest species of Brachiaria,

Panicum, Echinochloa, Rottboellia, and Urochloa. They supplement these

wild cereals with relishes made from leaves, most of which they also usually

find in the wild. These two together provide them with sources of starch,

proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. They also use wild native plants for

brooms, building material, fiber, salt, medicine, poisons, and so on.

South Africa

When in the 1930s the Chamber of Mines began asking about edible

wild plants, its labor-recruitment offices across South Africa became

overwhelmed. "We were inundated with parcels from many parts of the

country containing plants or parts of plants," wrote one of the participants

recently. "It became clear that a nutritionally significant part of the people's

diet was being obtained from the veld."

Among the grains sent in werethose from

• Sporobolus fimbriatus (matolo-a-maholo)

• Brachiaria brizantha (bread grass, long-seed millet)

• Echinochloa stagnina (bourgou)

• Panicum subalbidum (manna grass)

• Stenotaphrum dimidiatum (dogtooth grass)

259

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• Direct seeding trials using rain as the sole source of moisture;

• Searches for elite specimens (those that, for instance, hold onto the ripe

seed, that have bigger seed, and that best survive harsh conditions);

• Trials on various sites (from the most favorable locations to moving sand

dunes);

• Analyses of food value (physical, chemical, and nutritional) as well as of

the foods prepared from them; and

• Multiplication of seeds or other planting materials for distribution to

nomads, farmers, governments, and researchers.

DRINN

The grass known in Arabic as drinn (Aristida pungens) once provided by far

the most important wild grain of the northern Sahara.

It was extremely

abundant, often growing on sand dunes but especially on bottomlands watered by

runoff from higher ground. It is a tall (to 1.5 m), tufted perennial with deep roots

and long leaves. Its grains are black.

Travelers crossing the Sahara in the past often wrote about drinn's value,

both as a food and as forage. Duveyrier (1864) commented: "its grain is often the

only food for people." Cortier (1908) referred several times to the abundance of

drinn: "The hillocks of sand in all the plain," he wrote, "are embossed by

enormous tufts of drinn, whose black grains at the tips of long stems swing and

sweep the soil."

Even as recently as 1969, drinn was still a significant part of the diet in the

Sahara oases.

In earlier times it was an important food from the desert's edge

almost to the Ahaggar (southern Algeria). It was, for instance, vital to people

living a tenuous existence in the very heart of this fearsome region; the Toubou

of Tibesti (northern Chad) are just one example.

In fact, this grass was so

crucial to life that desert tribes were characterized as those who cultivated cereals

(the Mahboud), and those who gathered drinn (the Maloul).

Drinn is extremely drought resistant. It grows, for instance, between

Touggourt and El Oued in Algeria on sand dunes where the average rainfall is

less than 70 mm per year.

PANIC GRASSES

Various Panicum species have been favored by grain gatherers the world

over. Panicum miliaceum was once so popular in Europe that

It is also known as toulloult or loul.

Champault, 1969.

Chapelle, 1958.

Information from P. Beckman.

WILD GRAINS 260

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it became a crop that perhaps predates wheat. Today this plant is grown

extensively in the Soviet Union and Central Asia under the name proso millet.

At least seven wild Panicum species are gathered for food in Africa.

The

most important are discussed below.

Panicum turgidum

Called afezu or merkba (Arabic), this grass produces seed that closely

resembles proso millet. It was once abundant across the Sahara as well as in

desert lands as far east as Pakistan. It was widespread, for example, in Senegal,

Mauritania, Morocco, Egypt, and Somalia and was the primary wild grass in a

vast belt across the southern Sahara. Its grain was formerly gathered in large

amounts, and even today it is still harvested, at least to some extent, throughout

the plant's range.

This desert species grows where few crops can. It is extremely drought

tolerant, thriving in dry sands in semiarid or arid areas with annual rainfalls from

250 mm down to as little as 30 mm. It is also found in semidesert shrublands and

is common among the vegetation inhabiting dried-up wadis.

A deep-rooted, clump-forming perennial, this plant forms loose tussocks I m

or so in diameter. It spreads by long, looping stolons, building up mats of

vegetation that are extremely useful for erosion control. (Its stems fall over and

root at the nodes, clamping down the soil.) It is known to colonize wind-blown

sand dunes (often while they are still moving) and can protect steep slopes. The

root system is extensive, penetrating to below I m as well as radiating out

horizontally more than 3.4 m in plants excavated in Somalia.

Although afezu's main nonfood use is as a sand-binder, it provides some

grazing for camels, goats, and other animals. Its palatability is generally low, but

its ability to grow in virtual desert conditions, together with its perennial nature,

gives it great value.

This plant bears its seeds on panicles that rise above the mat. They can be

easily collected by holding the seedheads over a bowl and beating them with a

stick. Most of the grain collected ends up in a porridge (tébik).

Panicum laetum

The grain of this particular panic grass is regarded as a special delicacy. It

was an important ingredient in kreb. People still collect it for food in many parts

of West Africa, sometimes on a large enough scale that it shows up in local

markets. The grains are normally crushed and eaten as a porridge.

This plant, which also occurs in massive stands, ranges from Mauritania to

the Sudan and Tanzania. It is an annual, often common

Jardin, 1967.

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on black-clay soil in areas that are seasonally flooded. Animals like it, and it is

especially well suited for making hay or silage. It is not highly drought tolerant,

however.

Because it occurs in almost pure stands, the grain is fairly easy to collect.

People sweep a small bowl or calabash through the seedheads during the period

when the ripe grains are ready to fall.

Panicum anabaptistum

Little has been written about this species. However, its grains are also eaten

in at least a few parts of Africa. It, too, is liked by animals and can be utilized for

hay and silage. The plant prefers heavy soils and is found predominantly on wet

sites. It continues producing green shoots well into the dry season, a valuable

feature in any desert forage. People weave its long, dried culms (stems) into mats

for their houses.

Panicum stagninum

This interesting perennial (also known as Panicum burgii) is found

throughout much of tropical Africa, especially the Sudan and Central Africa.

Instead of producing a useful grain, it yields a thick syrup, which is used in

confections and sweet beverages that are widely enjoyed in Timbuktu and other

places.

KRAM-KRAM

Along the southern fringes of the Sahara the primary wild cereal is kram-

kram (Cenchrus biflorus).

This annual grass builds massive stands over

thousands of hectares of sand plains and stabilized dunes. In earlier times, it was

the dominant cereal of both the Sahel and the borderland between the Sahel and

the Sahara. In those days it was a more important food than pearl millet, and its

grains were milled into flour and made into porridge on a vast scale. As noted

earlier, some kram-kram seeds contain 9 percent fat and have perhaps the highest

food energy of any cereal. They also have a notably high protein content—21

percent in one recent analysis, or about twice the level found in normal wheat or

maize.

Kram-kram

is now harvested only when other crops fail, but given some

attention it might once again become a universal food for the peoples of the

northern Sahel. Also, this wild plant might be converted to a useful crop.

Domestication could come about quickly, particularly if its grain were enlarged

by selection or cross-breeding with other Cenchrus species. The plant grows well

on sandy soils. It is a reliable

In older literature this is referred to as Cenchrus catharticus Delile.

Other common names are ''Sahelian sandbur," chevral, and karindja. Tuareg names

include karengia, wujjeg, and uzack.

WILD GRAINS 262

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KRAM-KRAM

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Food energy (Kc) 325 Cystine 1.7

Protein (g) 19.2 Isoleucine 4.8

Carbohydrate (g) 56 Leucine 15.5

Fat (g) 2.9 Lysine 1.1

Fiber (g) 2.3 Methionine 2.2

Ash (g) 10.2 Phenylalanine 5.2

Calcium (mg) 63 Threonine 3.2

Copper (mg) 0.5 Tyrosine 3.2

Iron (mg) 6.4 Valine 5.5

Magnesium (mg) 63

Manganese (mg) 2.0

Phosphorus (mg) 162

Potassium (mg) 153

Zinc (mg)

Assuming 10 percent moisture.

COMPARATIVE QUALITY

WILD GRAINS 263

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LAKES OF GRASS

The following, taken from a 1990 report from the United Nations

Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO), shows how a farsighted project is

restoring one of the formerly important West African wild grasses. Although

it emphasizes animal feed, it gives a glimpse of what could be done by

developing wild grasses for food*

To farmers and pastoralists in the Inner Delta of Mali, the bourgou

floodplains supply a crucial source of fodder. Without these bourgoutières,

the livestock would die during the dry season. Only bourgou can survive in

these bottomlands that go underwater each year for months at a time.

Bourgou is unique in its adaptation to these amazing conditions. As the

waters rise around it, the grass grows taller and taller until (after about 3

months) its stems can reach lengths of more than 3 m. At this point bourgou

is like an aquatic plant with only its flowers and seedheads sticking above

the surface. Once the water level drops, cattle are given access, and as

they walk through the shallows, they trample the seeds and runners into the

soft ground. This ensures that the crop will survive and grow again.

However, when everything has dried out, there remains on the surface a

dense mat of grass, half-a-meter thick.

This mat is what is used for fodder. If well managed, bourgou produces

nearly 30 tons of dry matter per hectare—a sizable yield even for much

more productive locations. When cut and

Bourgou harvest. (UN Sudano-Sahelian Office)

WILD GRAINS 264

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sold in the market, the grass fetches good prices: between 25 and 100

CFA francs per bundle (1-3 kg) in the early 1990s. The problem, however,

is that the period of intense drought, from 1968 to 1985, destroyed many

bourgoutières. So, in 1982 UNSO and the Malian government began a

project to learn how to regenerate bourgou grasslands.

So far, the most effective technique has been to plant rootlings: small,

rooted cuttings collected either from existing bourgoutières or from

nurseries specifically set up for the purpose. The planting (at an average

rate of 10,000 plants per hectare) is done by hand. This takes a lot of work,

but it has been so successful that this grass has now been re-established

on more than 4,000 hectares. And, as bourgou is a perennial, it should

continue in those floodplains for decades.

Already, regenerated bourgoutières have had a great impact locally.

Farmers use the grass both for direct grazing and for making silage and

hay. Many have been able to increase their incomes through selling both

fodder and milk. Local milk supplies have increased so much that

thousands of families have benefited from better nutrition.

UNSO feels that areas all along the Niger River could also be planted

with bourgou. It is possible that the grass might even thrive in other river

valleys, such as that of the Senegal, where annual floods make better

known crops difficult to grow.

* For more information, contact United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO), Avenue

Dimdolobsom (section 3), B.P. 366, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

WILD GRAINS 265

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source of forage, since it persists in a dry but palatable state until the next

rainy period.

On the other hand, kram-kram is vicious. It is a sandbur whose grains are

enclosed in clusters (fascicles) surrounded with many sharp spines. These grab

onto the fur of animals and the clothing of people. Indeed, they easily penetrate

flesh and have literally been thorns in people's sides for millennia. Travelers have

long complained of the plant's "troublesome nature" and "constant

inconvenience," but they did admit that it was also very useful. "Many of the

Tawarek, from Bornu as far as Timbuktu,'' wrote Heinrich Barth in the

mid-1800s, "subsist more or less upon its seed."

When mature, the burs fall to the sand in great quantities, often clinging

together in giant masses that roll along with the wind, growing as they go. People

sweep them up with bunches of straw or with giant "combs." They

throw them into a wooden mortar and pound and winnow away the troublesome

spines, leaving behind the white, flavorful seeds.

Livestock cannot abide the prickly spikelets, but they like grazing on kram-

kram both in its juvenile state and after the spiky burs have fallen off. The plant

grows vigorously, and during the rainy period it can be cut several times for hay

or silage. The hay must be made at times when the burs are absent, but silage can

be made at any time because the fermentation softens the bristles, so that animals

digest them without difficulty.

Not all forms of this plant are spiky nuisances. At least one has blunt inner

spines and no outer spines at all. It has been called Cenchrus leptacanthus. If this

type breeds true and if it could be developed as a crop, it would make kram-kram

easier to handle and perhaps very valuable as a forage for many dry areas.

A related species, also used as a wild cereal, is Cenchrus prieurii. It is

spread throughout the Sahara from Senegal to Ethiopia (as well as India). People

eat the crushed grain, mainly as porridge.

BOURGOU

Of all the grasses of the central delta of the Niger, bourgou (Echinochloa

stagnina) was once the most prevalent. At one time it covered an estimated

250,000 hectares. (Much of that land, which is

Information from R. Bartha.

A close relative. Cenchrus ciliaris (commonly known as "buffel grass"), is a

perennial with a very high forage value. It is increasingly used throughout the world's

tropics and subtropics.

WILD GRAINS 266

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flooded for part of each year, is now under cultivated rice, see Chapter 1.) The

Fulani people, for example, harvested large amounts of bourgou seed for food.

They also got sugar from the plant. Some of the sugar produced by

photosynthesis is not converted to starch and accumulates in the stems. People

used it in beverages, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. Even today, some sugar is

still extracted from bourgou and is utilized especially for making sweetmeats and a

liqueur.

This grass is found typically along river banks and other moist areas,

especially those of Central Africa and on the central delta of the Niger. Recently, a

farsighted UN-sponsored project has begun to restore some of the old bourgou

stands in the area (see box, page 264).

Although its seeds are harvested for food, bourgou today is mainly used for

fodder. For this purpose, it is notably important at the beginning of the dry

season. As the annual floodwaters recede, it provides the vital forage needed to

fatten livestock before the dry season sets in and their drastic weight losses

begin.

The genus Echinochloa is one of the larger ones in the grass family. Two

more species used for food in Africa are the following.

Antelope grass (Echinochloa pyramidalis)

This native of tropical Africa, southern Africa, and Madagascar is primarily

used for fodder, but is also used locally as flour.

Shama millet (Echinochloa colona)

This plant probably originated in Asia, but it has been in Africa a very long

time. Today people eat its grain only in dry years, although Egyptians possibly

once grew it as a cereal on farms. The plant thrives in wet, clay soils where few

grasses do well (in some African languages it is called "waterstraw"). Beyond its

use as a food, the plant is suitable for making hay and silage and is relished by

livestock.

CROWFOOT GRASSES

At least one Dactyloctenium species is eaten in Africa. It is the so-called

Egyptian grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium). This annual of the Sahara and the

Sudan is now widely naturalized in different parts of the tropics and subtropics,

including North America. It has never been considered as a possible cultivated

crop, but nomads and others in its homeland (as well as Australian aborigines)

gather the grains for food. The plant mostly grows in heavy soils at damp sites

below 1,500 m. Livestock enjoy it, and it is also suitable for making hay and

silage.

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SHAMA MILLET

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Food energy (Kc) 311 Cystine 0.8

Protein (g) 9.5 Isoleucine 4.6

Carbohydrate (g) 56 Leucine 10.8

Fat (g) 5.3 Lysine 2.1

Fiber (g) 11.1 Methionine 1.6

Ash (g) 7.8 Phenylalanine 6.9

Calcium (mg) 45 Threonine 3.5

Copper (mg) 0.4 Tyrosine 4.3

Iron (mg) 9.7 Valine 5.8

Magnesium (mg) 198

Manganese (mg) 2.5

Phosphorus (mg) 369

Potassium (mg) 270

Sodium (mg)

Assuming 10 percent moisture.

WILD GRAINS 268

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EGYPTIAN GRASS

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Food energy (Kc) 323 Cystine 1.5

Protein (g) 11.8 Isoleucine 4.8

Carbohydrate (g) 65 Leucine 9.9

Fat (g) 1.7 Lysine 2.0

Fiber (g) 4.0 Methionine 3.2

Ash (g) 7.5 Phenylalanine 6.8

Calcium (mg) 963 Threonine 3.5

Copper (mg) 0.6 Tyrosine 3.7

Iron (mg) 10.9 Valine 5.8

Magnesium (mg) 198

Manganese (mg) 38.3

Phosphorus (mg) 351

Potassium (mg) 270

Zinc (mg)

Assuming 10 percent moisture.

WILD GRAINS 269

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WADI RICE

Main Components

Essential Amino Acids

Calcium (mg) 36 Cystine 1.5

Copper (mg) 0.6 Isoleucine 4.1

Iron (mg) 15.1 Leucine 8.6

Magnesium (mg) 243 Lysine 3.6

Manganese (mg) 4.4 Methionine 2.2

Phosphorus (mg) 495 Phenylalanine 5.2

Potassium (mg) 333 Threonine 3.4

Sodium (mg) 9 Tyrosine 4.8

Zinc (mg)

4 Valine 5.9

Assuming 10 percent moisture.

This chapter's tables and graphs show that Africa's famine-food grains

can be quite nutritious. They are notably rich in those amino acids that are

essential for human health but that are normally deficient in sorghum and

the other common staples. Kram-kram, Egyptian grass, and wadi rice, for

example, have more of the sulfur-containing amino acids than the FAO

reference protein requirement. Egyptian grass and shama millet proteins

are also significantly higher in threonine than those usually reported for

sorghum protein. Wadi rice protein (see above) is notably better than

sorghum, but it closely resembles that of common cultivated rice in its

amino-acid composition.

WILD GRAINS 270

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WILD RICES

Cereals of the West and Central African savannas include two wild rices.

One, Oryza barthii, is the wild progenitor of the African domesticated rice (see

African rice chapter, page 17, and especially the map, page 23). An annual, it

tends to grow in shallow depressions that fill with water during the rains but later

dry up. It produces abundant seed and is still harvested on a considerable scale.

The second species, Oryza longistaminata, is perennial and thus requires a

more continuous supply of moisture. It is a relatively shy seeder, but its grain is

sometimes harvested in sufficient quantities to reach the local markets.

A third wild rice (Oryza punctata) is indigenous to eastern Africa. This so-

called "wadi rice" is a freely tillering annual that grows up to 1.5 m tall, and it,

too, commonly occurs in rain-flooded depressions. Its seeds are relatively large

and resemble those of cultivated rice except that they have a reddish husk. In

Central Sudan, where wadi rice is widespread, the grains are boiled with water or

milk and eaten as a staple.

OTHER WILD GRAINS

Among other wild African grasses that are, at least on a few occasions, used

as food are the following. Little or nothing is known about these or their food

uses, but certain botanical tomes contain the following cryptic comments.

Urochloa mosambicensis. Central and East Africa. Grains boiled.

Urochloa trichopus. Tropical Africa. Grains sometimes eaten.

Themeda triandra. Tropical and southern Africa. Perennial grass.

Grain eaten during times of famine. Forms principal cover in fireclimax

savanna areas. Used as fodder for livestock. Possibly of use in papermaking. Used

a lot for thatching; bundles are sold in Ethiopian

markets for the purpose.

Latipes senegalensis. Tropical Africa. Annual grass. Seeds are eaten by

desert tribes.

Eragrostis ciliaris.

Widespread in tropics. Grains used as famine food.

Eragrostis gangetica. Tropical Africa and Asia. Grains used as famine food.

This and the following Eragrostis species are related to tef (see chapter 12, page

215).

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Eragrostis pilosa. Grains harvested regularly in East Africa.

Eragrostis tremula. Tropical Africa and South Asia. Grains used as famine

food.

Setaria sphacelata. Eastern South Africa, South Cape, Botswana, Namibia.

Perennial, robust, usually tufted grass. Of much economic importance. Different

varieties or ecotypes have various uses: for hay and silage; for silage only; or just

for grazing. Seeds eaten as famine food.

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Appendix A

Potential Breakthroughs for Grain Farmers

This book was intended to be solely a survey of Africa's promising grains.

However, in drafting it the staff became aware of certain nonbotanical

developments that could bring enormous benefit to the use and productivity of

Africa's indigenous grains. Some of these promising developments that deal with

farming methods are presented here; others dealing with food preparation are

given in Appendixes B, C, and D. It should be understood that the innovations

described are not the only ones. Indeed, there may be dozens of alternatives for

helping to solve the problems described. Nor is it our intention to suggest that

these are panaceas. It should be understood further that the novel subjects

described here are largely unproved or even undeveloped. Each incorporates a

sound and seemingly powerful concept, but whether any will become truly

practical in the harsh reality of rural practice and poverty is uncertain. We

present them to encourage scientists and administrators to explore these

unappreciated topics that just might become vital to Africa's future.

CONQUERING QUELEA

A tiny bird is perhaps the greatest biological limit to African cereal

production. The most numerous and most destructive bird on earth, the seed-

eating quelea (Quelea quelea) can descend on a farm in such numbers as to

consume the entire grain crop in a matter of hours.

Quelea occurs only in Africa, but there its population is estimated to be at

least 1.5 billion.

Although it holds much of the continent's agriculture hostage,

its worst outbreaks are in parts of the eastern and southern regions, where its

plagues are worse than those of any locust.

One estimate puts the number as high as 100 billion.

APPENDIX A 273

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The fields of ripe grain lying in the path of quelea migrations are essentially

doomed. And it is unlikely that the consequences will diminish. Indeed, marginal

lands are increasingly employed to grow grains, and future destruction is likely to

be even greater.

The quelea's influence is insidious. This bird not only eats enough farm grain

to feed millions of people, it destroys the farmers' morale and drains all interest in

planting more land. Where quelea occurs, family members must patrol the

ripening fields for weeks, disrupting their lives and restricting all outside

activities such as jobs or schooling. Its preferences even dictate what is planted

—millions of families now grow dark-seeded, tannin-rich, poorly digestible

sorghums, at least in part because the birds, quite naturally, dislike them (see

Chapter 10).

Trying to scare away hordes of ravenous birds is clearly futile in all but the

smallest plots. Efforts to control quelea with poisons, napalm, dynamite,

pathogens, and electronic devices have failed. Dynamiting the densest

concentrations can achieve temporary local control, but a single flock may

contain more than two million pairs and spread over an area far too wide for an

explosion to have much effect. However, one line of research is now showing

some promise.

At sunset each day queleas congregate in patches of tall grasses or trees. As

the sky darkens they crowd together, until thousands are packed side by side in a

small space. Researchers at the Zimbabwe Department of National Parks and

Wildlife Management have observed that (provided the night is dark and the

roost is isolated and fairly homogeneous, such as a patch of bulrushes) the birds

are loath to leave. When disturbed, the chattering flock flutters forward a meter

or two and only reluctantly decamps into the soundless darkness beyond. Indeed

the scientists found that, once the flock had settled in, they could "herd" it around

in the roost on moonless nights. By blowing whistles, beating on metal, or

making some other disturbance, they could hustle the birds from one end to the

other at will.

This was the key. If a barrier (a sheet of glass or transparent plastic, for

example) was placed across the middle of the roost, thousands of queleas could

be forced to fly into it each night (at least, for three consecutive nights, after

which the birds became more cautious). If a holding cage was placed beneath the

barrier, at least some of the half-stunned birds tumbled in. They could then be

dispatched humanely, or, even better, could be trucked directly to a slaughtering

facility and processed like poultry.

These grain-fed fowl make good food and traditionally have brought high prices in

Zimbabwe. However, Zimbabwe law now prohibits eating them because 16-65 million

quelea are killed each year by spraying bird toxins onto their roosts and nests. It has been

noted, however that people follow the spray teams and few dead birds remain on the

ground for long.

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In a second step, the Zimbabwe researchers tested tailor-made roosts. In

isolated locations (and on sites quelea should find irresistible), they planted plots

of napier grass and shaped them with slightly narrowed waists where the barriers

and traps could be easily erected.

This seemed like an excellent way to turn a pest into profit, or at least into

food, but it proved to have operational difficulties. The biggest problem was that

only a few birds ended up in the cages. Those coming in from the fields flew fast

enough to stun themselves on the glass, but most of those herded within the roost

recovered too fast to fall.

Actually, because of such disappointing results the Zimbabwean authorities

dropped the whole idea. They do, however, still use trap roosts to concentrate the

birds so that workers with backpack sprayers can get to them with avicides

(bird-killing chemicals).

This is much cheaper than using aircraft.

For most parts of rural Africa, killing birds with chemicals is unlikely to be

nearly as practical or as appealing as capturing them for food. Thus, even though

not yet perfected, the trap-roost concept seems to have promise. Indeed, it might

in the end prove ideal for much of rural Africa because it offers the hungry poor

both food and source of income. In principle, the operation is simple, cheap, and

easy to understand and replicate. Given a new burst of innovation, today's

limitations might well be overcome. Nets might be devised or the cages raised so

that the chattering flocks would fly right in during the dark of the night and not

have to stun themselves at all. Certainly, there seems to be much scope for

improvement.

Of course, at this early stage there are many uncertainties even if the method

can be made operational. Will it work in locations where the birds normally roost

in trees? Could it be modified for use in trees? Are there grasses better than

napier?

Will the birds learn, over time, to avoid the seductive patches of grass?

These issues are of course unresolved. However, if this approach can be

made to succeed even partially, its effects could be far-reaching. And if it can be

brought to perfection, it might transform the production of cereals throughout the

quelea combat zone. Relieved of this feathered scourge, farmers could grow the

best-adapted, best-tasting, and most nutritious grains. They could plant more

land, their children could stay in school during bird season, and they themselves

could keep their outside jobs.

Information from C. Packenham.

Vetiver grass seems likely to be a more practical choice. It is a perennial that neither

spreads nor is attractive to grazing animals. Trap roosts made of vetiver would stay in

place, perhaps for decades. Whether the birds will roost in blocks of vetiver grass should

be quickly tested. This plant is described later in the chapter.

APPENDIX A 275

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Although the trap-roost technique will never be a panacea,

it appears to

have advantages over other approaches on several grounds:

• Environmental. The method requires no bird-killing chemicals.

• Economic. Trap roosts need no imported materials and farmers can build

them with their own labor and materials so the technique could be

employed by subsistence farmers, who have no cash to spare for bird

control.

• Conservation. Although the fact that other species roost with quelea is a

concern that needs to be evaluated,

techniques such as use of chemicals

and explosions, for instance—are as indiscriminate or more so.

• Logistical. The method is independent of supplies, government,

consultants, or high-level training.

• Adaptability. Catching birds in trap roosts seems infinitely adaptable to

various locations and to the differing needs of users from subsistence

farmers to large-property owners. For instance, a village farmer might

install a small trap roost to get a little ''poultry" for a party or a corporate

farmer may establish many large ones to maximize a crop worth millions.

EXORCISING WITCHWEED

A small plant is the second largest biological constraint on Africa's cereal

production. Usually called striga or witchweed, it is a parasite that lives off other

plants during its first few weeks of life. Its roots bore into neighboring roots and

suck out the fluids, leaving the victims dried out and drained of life.

Unfortunately, striga (there are two main species, Striga indica and

Striga hermonthica) loves maize, sorghum, millet, cowpeas, and other crops.

Millions of hectares of African farmland are continually threatened; hundreds of

thousands are annually infested. The traditional defense was long, idle fallow-—

now impossible because of population pressure.

Even were it possible, eradicating quelea would not solve all bird problems because

sparrows and other grain-eating species also occur.

It is possible that desirable or endangered birds might inadvertently get caught, but so

far experience shows that the tailor-made quelea roosts invariably contain few or no other

species.

Actually, striga seedlings are so small that the "drain" they put on the host is probably

only moderate. However, the victim does dry out and die. It is suspected, though not

proven, that striga somehow modifies the host's metabolism to interrupt its resistance to

drought (thus the drying-out effect) and to increase its production of roots (at the expense

of its leaf growth). Obviously both are processes that greatly reduce grain yields.

Information from L.L. Riopel.

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And today when striga breaks out severely, nothing can be done. Farmers

usually abandon their land. Some of the most productive sites now lie idle—

victims of this abominable sapsucker.

And the problem is worsening. Striga is most damaging when crops are

stressed by drought or lack of nutrients—phenomena that are increasingly

common. Changes in farming practices are also helping striga to conquer ever

more countryside. The continuous cropping of cereals, for example, contributes

more and more striga seed to the soil.

At present, the only way to keep this weed in check is by carefully crafted

farming practices: crop rotations, fertilization, and skillful use of herbicides, for

instance. But this is impractical for the millions of subsistence farmers who have

no surplus land for crop rotations and can afford neither fertilizer nor herbicides.

Also, it would be nearly impossible to train millions of farmers to modify their

farming practices, especially in the impoverished zones where striga is most

threatening.

A "technological fix" to take care of the problem easily, universally, and

permanently has never been found, but there is a possibility that it might be just

around the corner. A crack in the plant's biological armor has been discovered,

and through it researchers see exciting new prospects.

The excitement is based on the recognition that striga relies heavily on

"chemical signals" to locate its victims. The mechanisms of this signaling have

now been defined. In addition, approaches have been designed to cut striga's

"lines of communication" or to provide misinformation. And control methods are

proving successful in laboratory trials and even early field experiments.

Striga seeds refuse to germinate until they receive a chemical signal from the

root of a potential host. The signal telegraphs the fact that a victim is nearby and

that moisture is adequate for successful germination. The seed may lie dormant

for decades awaiting this chemical confirmation that it is safe to come out.

But striga's elegant adaptation provides a window of opportunity. Farmers

could, at least in theory, block the signals. Better still, they could supply false

signals and trigger striga seeds into suicidal germination. Striga depends so much

on the lifeblood of other plants that unless its seedlings can latch onto a root

within four days, they die. Each striga plant produces millions of tiny seeds, but a

chemical trigger could perhaps fool all of them into germinating. If the land had

been newly plowed, the parasite would find no victims and four days later

farmers could safely plant their crops.

Recently, scientists have identified chemical signals that trigger striga's

germination as well as others that inhibit it. Apparently, the balance between

stimulation and inhibition is what determines whether

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the seed will germinate. Both chemical types are extremely active. The

stimulants, for instance, can be diluted 10,000-fold or more and still cause striga

seed to germinate.

If compounds like these can be synthesized, mimicked, or economically

extracted from plant roots, they could be (at least in humanitarian terms) among

the most valuable of all organic chemicals. For example, it may be possible to

produce striga-suicide sprays, perhaps even in the regions that require the most

help. This approach has been exploited by Robert Eplee of the U.S. Department

of Agriculture to dramatically reduce striga attachment in greenhouse tests.

Also, another striga signal has been identified. This compound (2,6-

dimethoxybenzoquinone) "tells" the germinating striga seedling to form the organ

(haustorium) that pierces the victim's root. This, too, may offer a way to

overcome striga. For instance, an antagonist chemical might blunt striga's

underground weapon. If the pest can find no host, it never develops a growing

shoot (apical meristem), it never becomes photosynthetic, and it dies.

Recently, scientists have found that nature is ahead of them. At least one

strain of sorghum can already foil striga by producing water-soluble compounds

that are striga inhibitors. This sorghum, SRN-39, both resists the parasite and has

desirable agronomic characteristics and good-quality grain. Its striga resistance

appears to be simply inherited (only one or two genes). Crosses with other

cultivars have already been made and promising progeny obtained. Moreover, an

assay has been developed to screen breeding material for this resistant

characteristic. These results suggest that sorghum breeders may soon be able to

breed for striga resistance rapidly and efficiently.

Similar progress has been

achieved in maize.

It has also been found that some leguminous plants—Crotolaria species are

examples—excrete their own striga-stimulating signals but do not serve as hosts.

Although the striga germinates, it immediately dies. Thus, plants like these could

be employed to deplete the striga seed bank in the soil. They may prove

extremely valuable species for fallow crops or alley crops. Crotolaria species

(rattleboxes) are le

Information from L. Butler.

New results suggest that striga uses a "chemical radar" approach to host detection. The

striga itself releases enzymes that remove the stimulants from the root's surface. This is a

novel, and very effective, means of detecting the presence of a potential host. Disruption

of this enzymatic function is also being effectively exploited by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture.

In fact, about 10 years ago a series of SAR (Striga asiatica resistant) varieties that

have a very high level of resistance to the white-flowered asiatica were developed in

India. More recently, in southern Africa, five SAR lines have been found to have

reasonable resistance to the red-flowered asiatica found in Africa. As with SRN-39.

inheritance is simple. (Information from L. House.)

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gumes, so they not only knock out the parasitic pest, they also enrich the soil with

nitrogen and organic matter.

All these approaches to the striga problem should be top research priorities,

and not only in Africa. This parasite already affects India and has broken out in a

small part of the United States. It could easily come to infect much of the world's

farmland. Solving the problem now would lift from African agriculture a burden

so big that the result might compare with a "Green Revolution." It would also

help insulate the rest of the world from the heartbreak of this herbaceous horror.

All countries have a stake in the outcome of this challenging research.

LIQUIDATING LOCUSTS

Numerous African countries, but especially those in the Sahel, are

victimized by the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria). Controlling this one pest

soaks up vast amounts of money, time, and insecticides—700,000 liters of

concentrate were sprayed over 14.5 million hectares in 1988, for instance. It has

generally been effective, but in recent years some of the locust's relatives have

risen up to become equally menacing. In 1989, for example, grasshoppers—in

particular the Senegal grasshopper (Oedalus senegalensis)—arrived just at

harvest time, causing 10 times more damage than the locusts had the previous

year.

For nearly 30 years Dieldrin was the pesticide of choice. Applied in strips

across the desert terrain where locust larvae hatch, it seemed an ideal way to stop

the insects before they reached their damaging migratory stage. It worked, it

needed no repeated spraying, it was cheap, and it could be stored without

degrading even in the scorching heat of the Sahara. But in the late 1980s, even

while locust swarms were swelling to worrisome levels, people began protesting

because of Dieldrin's potential toxicity to humans and animals.

On environmental grounds, organophosphorus chemicals and pyrethroids

seemed preferable but they remain effective for a few days only and must be

reapplied over and over. This means higher costs, more work, and the destruction

of all insect life—even beneficial species.

Now, a new approach to chemical control seems to offer some hope.

Research in Germany has shown that oil from the seed of the neem tree

(Azadirachta indica) stops locust nymphs from clustering.

After exposure to

even tiny doses, the juvenile locusts fail to form the

Information from H. Schmutterer. This tree and its promise for controlling insects and

other pests is described in the companion report Neem: A Tree for Solving Global

Problems. (For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.)

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massive, moving plagues. They remain alive but solitary and lethargic; they sit on

the ground, almost motionless, and are thus very susceptible to insectivorous

birds. Grasshopper nymphs are affected in the same way.

This is very different from the earlier applications of neem against locusts.

Those first attempts used alcoholic extracts of the seed kernel, and were aimed at

disrupting metamorphosis or at stopping the adults from feeding on crops.

Although highly promising in experiments, they proved less successful in

practice.

The new approach uses neem oil rather than neem-kernel extracts.

Experiments have shown that at very low concentrations (2.5 liters per hectare)

this oil, like Dieldrin, prevents locusts from developing into their migratory

swarms. It doesn't kill them but it keeps them in the harmless, solitary (green)

form. It apparently disrupts the formation of hormones necessary for the

transformation into the yellow-and-black gregarious stage whose plagues are the

bane of arid Africa and Arabia.

The neem tree grows throughout West Africa, and thus the locust-control

agent could, in principle, be locally produced. To press the oil out of the neem

kernels and to spray it over the areas where locusts breed and gather requires

neither particularly high-technology equipment nor unexpected expense. The oil

itself is neither toxic to mammals nor to birds and is biodegradable.

Another approach that may have some localized merit is to provide nesting

sites for insectivorous birds. In western China, where another plague locust

occurs, farmers have reportedly met with success by protecting, and even

building, nesting sites for the feathered locust eaters of the area.

EASING EROSION

The effects of soil erosion are well known: it devastates farms and forests;

worsens the effects of flooding; shortens the useful lifetimes of dams, canals,

harbors, and irrigation projects; and pollutes wetlands and coral reefs where

myriad valuable organisms breed. But there could now be a way to slow or even

stop it.

Hedges of a strong, coarse grass called vetiver have restrained erodible soils

for decades in Fiji and several other tropical locations. The hedges are only one

plant wide and the land between them is left free for farming, forestry, or other

purposes. This persistent grass has neither spread nor become a nuisance. If

current experience is applicable elsewhere, vetiver offers a practical and

inexpensive solution to the problem of soil losses in many locations. It could

become an

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exceptionally important component of land use, at least in the hot parts of the

world.

This deeply rooted perennial can already be found throughout Africa, but in

most places the idea of using it as a vegetative barrier to erosion is new and

untested. However, it is not farfetched. Strips of vetiver certainly are able to catch

and hold back soil. The stiff lower stems act as a filter that slows the movement

of water enough that it drops its load of soil.

Equally important, the dense, narrow bands of grass cause the runoff water

to spread out and slow down so that much of it can soak into the soil before it can

rush down the slopes. This captured moisture allows crops to flourish when those

in unprotected neighboring fields are lost to desiccation.

So far, all the international attention has focused on an Indian vetiver

(Vetiveria zizanioides). This is already widespread in Africa and has shown

promise for controlling erosion in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, and South

Africa, and appears to be a blessing for many countries. However, Africa has its

own native Vetiveria species. These are entirely untested, but they may confer

similar benefits. One (Vetiveria nigritana) has long been used to mark out

boundaries of properties in northern Nigeria, for instance,

and it has been

employed for the same purpose in Malawi and Zambia as well.

Vetiver has many interesting and unexpected uses. Tobacco farmers in

Zimbabwe report that putting a vetiver hedge around their fields keeps out

creeping-grass weeds, such as kikuyu and couch. It even seems to be a good

barrier to ground fires.

In the Sahel, vetiver hedges may prove extremely useful as sand barriers.

Winds off the Sahara often blow sand with such power that it scythes across the

landscape at ankle level, cutting off young crops before they are barely beyond

the seedling stage. Rows of vetiver planted on the windward side of fields could

be an answer. The stiff stalks would doubtless halt the scurrying sand, providing

both a windbreak and a sand trap.

Rows of vetiver planted across wadis may also make excellent water-

harvesting barriers. Once planted, the barriers would be essentially permanent.

The deep-rooted grass is likely to find enough soil moisture to survive even the

driest seasons in most arable locations. Although the upper foliage may die back,

the stiff, strong lower stalks that block the sand, soil, and water will remain.

These are so coarse that not. even goats will graze them to the ground.

It spreads so little that in legal disputes vetiver hedges have been officially accepted

as valid property lines. At one documented site in northern Zambia. vetiver still exists in

the same narrow lines that were planted 60 years ago.

Vetiver and its promise are described in the companion report Vetiver: A Thin Green

Line Against Erosion. (For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.)

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HANDLING SMALL SEEDS

As has been noted several times, a major problem with many of Africa's

grains—finger millet, fonio, and tef, for example—is that they have tiny seeds.

Size alone is holding these crops back. Small seeds create many difficulties. They

are hard to store and hard to handle because they pour uncontrollably through

even the smallest holes. They also make the crop difficult to plant because the

soil must be very finely textured (clods or clumps can overwhelm the seeds' puny

energy reserves), and the seeds must be placed precisely at just the right depth.

Moreover, because the emerging seedlings are small and weak, they are easily

smothered by weeds.

Many innovations could probably be devised to overcome these problems;

here we present several examples of seeding devices newly developed in four

Third World countries. These are undoubtedly not the only innovations for

planting small-seeded crops, but we present them here as guides to those who

wish to help Africa's lost crops.

Cameroon

In the late 1980s, the Cameroonian Agricultural Tools Manufacturing

Industry (CATMI) in Bamenda produced a seeder that, compared to traditional

planting by hand, reduces planting time by 60 percent and seed requirements by

33 percent. It is not specifically for small-seeded crops but includes a simple

distributer mechanism that can be adjusted to accept seeds of different sizes.

is said to reliably plant the desired number of seeds at the right depth and distance

apart. It is simple to handle, suitable for planting both on ridges and on flat land,

durable, easy to maintain, and cheap.

In 1988, 30 prototypes were distributed to farmers and research stations for

field testing. After further improvements, 300 more were produced and sent out.

Various agricultural services ran information and demonstration campaigns to

promote the planter. A line of credit was set up in the Northwest Province to

enable small farmers to purchase one. In addition, other provinces were contacted

and provided with demonstrators and seed planters.

A survey after the first planting season (1989) indicated that 97 percent of

the farmers who tried the implement bought it. Not only did it make the work

easier (no back pain) and speeded up planting, but it also reduced the need for

hired labor and helped increase both the area farmed and the yields achieved.

This work was done in cooperation with the Departments of Agricultural Engineering

and Rural Socio-Economics of the University of Dschang.

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Peru15

In the Andean city of Cuzco, Luis Sumar Kalinowski has created a seeder

capable of handling kiwicha,

whose seeds are as small as sand grains. It is a

simple, almost cost-free device that can sow large areas evenly and in uniform

rows. It may also work well with Africa's small seeds.

One version of the Sumar seeder uses a scrap piece of plastic pipe with a

foam-plastic cup taped to the end.

A nail is pushed gently through the bottom of

the cup to leave a hole of known diameter. Another version employs a

commercially available plastic end piece, which is drilled to provide the hole. In

either case, seed placed in the pipe trickles out at a constant rate, and the farmer

can vary the seeding density by walking faster or slower.

Indeed, by measuring the flow of seed through the hole, it is easy to

calculate how fast to walk (in paces per minute, for example) to sow the desired

density of seed. With a little practice, the farmer can attain an accuracy rivaling

that of mechanical drills. For the method to work, however, it is important that

the seeds be clean and free of straw, small stones, or other debris that could block

the hole.

Tanzania18

Engineers at Morogoro have designed and developed a low-cost, hand-

operated device known as the Magulu hand planter. It includes an attachment that

can be fastened to a hand hoe and can be used to plant both maize and beans in a

straight row. It is said that to plant a hectare of land using the Magulu hand

planter takes between 18 and 27 man-hours as compared with 80 man-hours using

the conventional method of planting by hand hoe.

Thailand

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), which is located near Bangkok,

has developed a mechanical seeder that is now being popularized in many Asian

countries. In one stroke, this so-called "jab seeder" makes a hole, drops a seed,

and covers the site, without the operator ever having to bend over.

The seeder weighs only about 1.5 kg and costs about US$10.00 (including

labor, materials, and mark-up). In Thailand, a farmer can

For more information, contact Luis Sumar Kalinowski, Centro de Investigaciones de

Cultivos Andinos. Universidad Nacional Técnica del Altiplano, Avenida de la Infancia N"

440. Huanchac, Cuzco, Peru.

This crop (Amaranthus candatus). a species of amaranth. is discussed in the

companion volume Lost Crops of the Incas. (For a list of BOSTID publications, see page

377.)

It is not necessary for the pipe to be plastic. Any tube—bamboo, cardboard, or other

material—will do. However, standard household water pipe and the disposable coffee cups

common in many countries fit together well. Also, the foam-type cups are easy to pierce

with a nail, and they leave a clean, smooth hole. Caps with different-sized holes can be

kept on hand for use with different crops.

T.E. Simalenga and N. Hatibu, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Sokoine

University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.

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recover the cost, in terms of labor saved, in only 5 days and on an area as little as

one-fifth of a hectare. Mass production is expected to reduce the cost even

further.

In Thailand's northern province of Chiang Mai, the idea has already caught

on: a number of local manufacturers are producing mechanical seeders based on

the AIT model.

At present, this machine is not intended specifically for small seeds. It is

used mainly with soybean, rice, maize, and mungbean. But even with these

crops, it brings big advantages in labor saving and yield.

In Nepal, field tests have found that—at wages of 25 rupees (US$1) a day

—a farmer can recover the cost of a jab seeder by planting maize or soybean in

just I hectare of land. Fifty seeders made locally by the Agricultural Tools

Factory in Birganj cost US$13.50 each.

By making a less onerous and more systematic operation, the jab seeder

could well increase grain-crop productivity and thereby benefit millions of

Africa's grain farmers.

OTHER INNOVATIONS

Seed planters are probably the main need for small-seeded crops, but they

are not the only need. Various appropriate technologies are required also for

harvesting, storing, shipping, and handling tiny cereal grains. Some of these

might come from techniques devised to produce ornamentals, forages, and

vegetable crops, many of which also have minute seeds.

Also, it is not impossible that the size of the seeds could be increased

through selection and breeding. Luis Sumar has already created a simple machine

for doing this in the case of kiwicha. The Sumar sorter uses a small blower and a

sloping plastic pipe. The seeds are blown up the pipe and drop into different

containers, depending on their weight. With it, Sumar has increased the grain size

in kiwicha. He keeps only the heaviest for planting, so that over the years the

crops produce seeds that are ever larger, on average. The use of such a simple,

inexpensive device in Africa might dramatically benefit fonio, finger millet, and

tef, to mention just three cereals.

A reviewer from Oklahoma wrote us: "We have been handling small seeds in the

Southern Great Plains with precision for half a century. I worked with native grass seeds

myself for 25 years. Some of the seeds are smaller than tef, fonio, or finger millet. We had

equipment that would mete out seed at low seeding rates very accurately and plant them

with precision. Our planters, processors, and cleaners are, perhaps, too sophisticated for

subsistence farmers, but modified versions are well within the capabilities of most village

mechanics and blacksmiths. The technology has been available for a long time. Suggest

you contact Chet Dewald, Southern Great Plains Range Research Station, 2000) 18

Street, Woodward, Oklahoma 73801."

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Appendix B

Potential Breakthroughs in Grain Handling

Appendix A identified technological advances that might boost the

production of indigenous African grains. Here we identify other advances that

might similarly influence the methods of milling and storing those grains. These,

too, are innovations that, in principle, could bring outstanding benefits

continent-wide. Again, however, it should be realized that they are just a

smattering of examples that caught our attention as the book was being prepared.

Other cutting-edge technologies may be as good, or better.

NO MORE POUNDING

Every day of the year, perhaps 50 million Africans—most of them women

and children—spend hours preparing the grain that their families will eat that

day. They usually soak the grain in water, pound it with the butt end of a heavy

wooden pole (pestle) to knock off the outer seed coat, winnow the beaten mixture

to separate the bran, moisten the grain a second time, and finally pound it yet

again to break it up into flour.

This is always a hot and disagreeable task. It limits both cereal use and life

itself. Decorticating enough pearl millet for a family meal (about 2.5 kg) takes

two women about 1.5 hours; converting the product into flour with a mortar and

pestle requires an additional 2 hours, sometimes more. Moreover, because the

flour spoils quickly and cannot be put aside for later use, it has to be done day

after day, in fair weather and foul, and regardless of sickness or other

indisposition.

Probably no single development could help rural Africa more than relief

from this never-ending drudgery. It would recover millions of "lost" hours every

year, it would improve health and family welfare,

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SORGHUM AND WOMEN

Sorghum is a women's crop in Africa. To a large extent, they are its

planters, cultivators, and harvesters. Through the accumulated wisdom of

centuries, women have amassed information about the crop and its

handling. Many are expert in distinguishing closely related varieties . . . a

knowledge which men—even professional scientists—seldom attain. Only

now, however, are researchers beginning to pay attention to this

knowledge.

Joyce Kanyangwa is one of those. Working under the auspices of

Texas Tech University, she traveled to three sorghum-growing areas of

Lesotho, visiting selected households to gain a perspective on attitudes

about the use of sorghum. ''I was interested in finding out what might be

done to expand the use of sorghum in the diet to give women more income

for their labor, as well as a cheaper staple for their tables," she explains.

Her research indicates that improving sorghum use can do much to

help Africa's women. "Sorghum is a woman's crop, but the market for the

product is limited primarily to brewing beer for men," she notes.

Better processing methods are particularly needed. The processing and

cooking of sorghum and millet takes more time than rice. Women going to

work, either in the fields or in the community, have less and less time

available for processing and cooking. Small-scale rural sorghum and millet

processing mills, like the rice mills already available in India, could help

promote the consumption of sorghum and millet.

"When sorghum is processed using a special machine, people like it,"

Kanyangwa says. "I'm optimistic that the crop has the potential for helping

female-headed households feed their families better and for helping women

make more money."

The introduction of suitable dehullers and flour mills will:

• Reduce the drudgery of women in the sorghum eating areas.

• Convert sorghum into a much more convenient grain.

• Improve the quality of sorghum products.

• Check the tendency of shifting from sorghum to other grains.

• Help develop composite flours and commercialize sorghum products.

Opposite: Ethiopia. Danakil Depression. At the entrance to her hut, over a

goatskin, an Adoimara Danakil woman grinds sorghum between two stones.

(Victor Englebert)

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and it would make the whole continent more productive. Perhaps most

important in the long run, it would secure the future of the local grains. At

present, the burden of the terrible toil is causing a silent rebellion against

sorghum, millet, and the other indigenous cereals.

Now an option is emerging. Small power mills can, in just a few minutes,

perform the task that now absorbs so much human energy and time. Some of the

most successful consist of a series of 8 or 12 grinding stones of the type used for

sharpening tools. The essential component, the dehuller, was originally designed

at the Prairie Regional Laboratory in Saskatoon, Canada. A small version

specially sized for rural Africa has been built, field-tested, and improved at The

Rural Industries Innovation Centre in Kanye, Botswana. It is powered by a small

diesel engine.

Reportedly, the machines waste no more grain than hand pounding does.

(Recovery rates of 85 percent have been achieved, which is 10 percent better than

is normal in the village.) Also the machine-dehulled grains apparently make no

detectable changes in local foods. Since they use dry grain, the dehullers are more

flexible than traditional methods, and the resulting flour can be stored.

The dehuller does only half of what African women do: it takes off the

seed's outer layer, leaving white, ricelike grain. A further grinding is needed to

make flour or grits. To do this mechanically, a hammer mill is employed. In some

cases, the dehuller and hammer mill are combined into a single unit.

Although these mechanical systems were designed primarily for processing

sorghum and pearl millet, they have also proved satisfactory for fonio and food

legumes such as cowpeas and pigeon peas.

One of the main attractions is their

capacity to handle (without major adjustment) grains of widely different size.

Under a Canadian-sponsored program, different models are currently being

developed or distributed for use in Senegal, the Gambia, and Zimbabwe. Mali and

Niger, following Botswana's lead, are creating designs suitable for local

toolmakers to build.

Mechanized processing probably has its most immediate use in cities and

towns. In rural areas, people must carry their grain to the mill and then carry

home their flour and bran. For them, the chore of carrying several kilograms

several kilometers may be just as onerous as staying home and pounding the grain

with a pole. However, there are ways to circumvent this. In Botswana, for

instance, a donkey cart is being made available without charge to carry the grain

and flour back and forth. (The donkey is fed on the customer's bran waste.) Also,

the milling unit could conceivably be mounted on a cart and

Finger millet is difficult to mill mechanically, but in India a suitable device has been

perfected (see page 48).

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wheeled to the customers. Thus, for example, a mobile mill might stop at various

villages once a week and process the grain on the consumer's own doorsteps. A

hammer mill perhaps might not work on such a system, but the dehuller alone

would relieve the major and most unpleasant part of the drudgery.

All of this opens the possibility of substantially lessening the burdens that at

present fall so heavily on millions of people. It will probably widen the mix of

crops they grow. It could increase lifestyle options and employment opportunities

by freeing women from the daily morning and evening chore of pounding grain.

It may contribute dramatically to better health among women and children,

provide time for more productive pursuits, create better markets for farmers, and

lead to a more stable food situation for many countries.

Despite the fact that people must pay to have their cereal mechanically

milled, this mini-milling industry is already starting to take hold in parts of

Africa. Several nations have introduced the Canadian-type mills, and support for

their maintenance has quickly spread, even into remote areas. Moreover,

merchants and consumers throughout Africa are showing increasing interest in

buying and using flours instead of unprocessed grain. A grain revolution seems to

be arising, bringing new options for farmers and consumers, as well as new

possibilities for a better life in the rural areas.

GRAIN DRAIN

To worry only about grain production is not enough: what counts is the

amount and quality of the food that gets into people's bodies. Today,

unfortunately, much of Africa's cereal crop never gets that far—it spoils or is lost

sometime after the harvest. Estimates suggest perhaps 25 percent of each year's

food production is either lost or rendered unfit.

The reasons are clear. During

handling and storage, heat and humidity foster molds and rots that ruin much

grain. Insects, rodents, and birds steal enormous amounts. Most subsistence

farmers store their harvest in small granaries (capacity 1.5 tons or so) and 1020

percent usually deteriorates or disappears before it can be eaten.

An obvious answer is better storage, and these days pest-proof silos built of

several materials are showing much promise. Examples follow.

This topic seems especially well suited to the U.S. Agency for International

Development's current programs on "family issues."

The exact figure is not known for certain. Some writers claim that postharvest grain

losses in Africa sometimes top 40 percent, mainly due to poor processing and storage.

Others say that it is less than 10 percent. Certain types of traditional stores are very

effective, but a 25-percent loss is very common in government stores (partly because

farmers often contribute only their poorest materials). And the losses on the farm can rise

dramatically if a new variety of grain is produced.

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Brick

A Zimbabwean engineer, Campbell D. Kagoro, has for years been

developing a granary built of local brick.

His structures—known as ENDA

granaries—have been installed in dry, poverty-prone areas of Zimbabwe. People

there (as elsewhere in Africa) know how to manufacture baked-clay bricks. To

build the silos, they lay the bricks directly on gravel-covered soil or on rock. (In

some instances, wooden joists and masonry footings are used.) They cover the

final structure with a waterproof thatch roof. The silos have a capacity of about

2.5 tons and may include up to five compartments for storing different products.

They are equipped with air vents and are said to offer excellent protection against

dampness, insects, and rodents.

Ferrocement

A form of reinforced concrete, ferrocement utilizes materials that are

normally readily available—wire mesh, sand, water, and cement. It does not

corrode easily and can last a lifetime.

Experience in Thailand and Ethiopia has demonstrated that ferrocement silos

can be built on site relatively inexpensively, using unskilled labor and only one

supervisor. In such silos, losses are less than 1 percent per year. Rodents, birds,

insects, and dampness cannot get in.

If the bin is well constructed and its lid

tightly sealed (tubing from a bicycle tire makes a useful gasket), even air cannot

get in. Inside an airtight silo, the respiring grain quickly uses up the oxygen.

Insects (eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults), as well as any other air-breathing

organisms introduced with the grain, are then destroyed.

The possibility of putting ferrocement silos on every farm is demonstrated

by a remarkable program in Thailand. There, where the concern is storing pure

water rather than grain, the government has provided three ferrocement jars (each

two cubic meters in size) for every family of six in rural areas. The project

involved three million families and nine million jars. Each jar costs $20, but the

per-capita cost—because a revolving fund of $13 million is recoverable—can be

as low as 42 cents.

Heat is a basic problem with ferrocement (and most other) silos. Bins in the

burning sun can warm up so much that moisture evaporates

This work has been done at the Agricultural Technical and Extension Service

(Agritex) in Zimbabwe. The design was developed by the Institute of Agricultural

Engineering (IAE) and Agritex. ENDA-Zimbabwe (Environment, Development,

Activities) has joined with Agritex to undertake a major study of the subject, with

financial assistance from IDRC.

Hundreds of ferrocement boats floating on the world's waterways demonstrate that this

material can be watertight, but the construction must be top quality because the

ferrocement is usually only a centimeter or so thick.

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from the grain, collects at the top, and fosters molds or sprouting. For this reason,

silos should always be located in the shade of trees or houses, sunk in the ground,

or surrounded with some rough-and-ready sun shield (thatch or scraps of foamed

plastic comes to mind).

Although much of the promise is for small bins for household use,

ferrocement can also be used to construct large storage facilities for town or

regional use. One of the most intriguing is the horizontal "sleeping silo"

pioneered in Argentina (where they are used mostly for storing potatoes). These

large structures are shaped like the hull of an upside-down ship half buried in the

ground. Bulkheads give strength and also create separate compartments in which

different products or different owners' products can be stored. Compared to the

towering grain elevators now used in much of the world, the horizontal

counterparts lie on the ground and require little in the way of engineering,

footings, or structural reinforcing.

Mud

Recently, an airtight grain store made from clay and straw has been

introduced to Sierra Leone. The silo, demonstrated by Chinese instructors

brought by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is simple in

construction, low in cost, and has potential to significantly decrease postharvest

grain losses.

The raw materials in this case consist of mud and straw, and the finished silo

is roofed with boards, straw, reeds, or other waterproof materials. Its inventors

are the peasants of northeast China who, from time immemorial, have built tiny

mud turrets to store their household food reserves. In recent years, a national

campaign to decentralize grain storage has led to this very simple and

economical technique being used throughout the Chinese countryside. In fact,

mud silos are now being built as large as 8 m in height and diameter, to hold 200

tons.

Ghana, too, has been testing improved mud silos.

Instead of ordinary mud,

however, sun-dried molded mud bricks, from a locally made mold, are used for

the circular wall. The top is a separately molded mud slab. The whole unit is

sealed with a mixture of mud and clay, and the wall is whitewashed to maintain

coolness.

Neither of these two silos requires any great expertise to construct or use.

Plastic

Researchers in Australia and the Philippines in recent years have jointly

developed sealed plastic enclosures for storing grain in ware

Adopted by the Ghana German Agricultural Development Project (GGADP).

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houses located in the humid tropics. In 1992, a new project was begun to design a

counterpart suited to the smaller-scale and outdoor needs of cooperatives, small

millers, and merchants. The scientists have developed a plastic container that is

rodent- and insect-proof and protects grain against the extremes of the tropical

environment. It is also simple to fumigate and suitable for storing damp grain

before drying. The plastic silos have been designed using the general principles

already employed for storing bulk grains in Australia. Although conducted in and

for the Philippines, this work seems suitable for application throughout the humid

tropics.

Rubber

Israel's agricultural research organization, familiarly known as the Volcani

Institute, has pioneered development of simple, cheap, and easily movable grain

stores with capacities up to 1,000 tons. These collapsible, tentlike structures can

be taken down, trucked to a new site, and quickly reassembled—a novel feature

that makes them especially useful for handling emergency food supplies and for

storing excess grain from unexpectedly bountiful crops. The walls are constructed

of rolls of strong wire mesh (actually weldmesh fencing material), but the grain is

held within UV-resistant plastic liners. These silos are sufficiently airtight to

control insect infestation without requiring pesticides. They are primarily for use

in drier areas.

DRYING GRAIN

Insects and rodents are not the only grain despoilers. Insufficient drying also

leads to vast amounts of damage. Dampness fosters molding, sprouting, and

decay that renders grain inedible. Drying the grains before storing them is

therefore vital. Techniques for doing this under Third World conditions are being

devised in several parts of the world.

Sierra Leone

Farmers in six districts of Sierra Leone are replacing traditional mud floors,

used for drying freshly harvested rice, with improved drying yards. This cheap

and simple change keeps the grain clean, lessens the drying time, and reduces

postharvest losses by more than half.

This research was sponsored by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural

Research (ACIAR), G.P.O. Box 1571, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601, Australia.

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United States

The Food and Feed Grains Institute of Kansas State University has designed a

new kind of dryer for developing country use. It has no fan or other moving parts

and uses heat generated by burning weeds, rice husks, agricultural by-products,

or other wastes.

This natural-convection, hot-air drying could open up new options in many

areas of Africa where today the only cereals that can be grown are those that

mature after the rains have ceased (when grains can be dried in the sun). In 1990,

Kansas State tested its dryers under conditions of very high rainfall in Peru and

Belize. Sun-drying was impractical, even impossible, but the new dryer proved

very effective: rough rice was reduced from a level of 20 percent moisture to 14

percent in only about an hour. While this is too fast for everyday practice with

rice, it clearly demonstrated that the dryer would perform well in the dampness of

the tropical rainy season.

Thailand

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), near Bangkok, has developed a

simple solar dryer, constructed of bamboo poles and clear plastic sheeting.

It can

process up to one ton of rice at a time and even in the wet season can reduce the

moisture content from 22 percent down to 14 percent in about 2 days. It is said to

cost only around US$150 to build.

In this device, sunlight passes through a clear plastic sheet and strikes a

layer of black ash (burnt rice husk) or black plastic sheet. This absorbs the solar

energy, converting it into warm air. The heated air rises by natural convection

through the slatted floor of the rice box, up through the grain (contained in fine

wire mesh), and out a tall chimney (again fabricated from bamboo and plastic

sheet).

Korea

In the early 1980s rice farmers in South Korea faced postharvest losses of

about 10 percent. But now those losses have been halved, thanks to a new

technology.

The system has been so successful that just 8 years after the project

was launched, 70,000 dryers had been purchased. By 1995, half a million are

expected to have been built.

This work is part of a project sponsored by the International Development Research

Centre of Canada.

The dryer was developed jointly by the University of Hohenheim in Germany and the

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Funds for the program

were provided by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)

GmbH.

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With this method, the grain is dried using a low-temperature process that

mainly exploits the drying potential of ambient air. Basically, a fan blows air

through grain in a silo. The process is cheap, requires little capital investment,

and the silo can subsequently be used for storage purposes. To enable drying in

humid weather and during the night, a small electric heater is used to heat the

ambient air a few degrees.

In practice, the dryer is a room-sized brick structure, with a false floor to

prevent soil moisture from seeping up. The air is uniformly distributed using

wood or sheet metal air ducts, laid on this false floor. The air is pushed through

the piled-up grain by a small 400-watt electric fan.

KILLING STORAGE INSECTS

The need to protect Africa's stored food from insects is particularly

important these days. The larger grain borer, a Central American beetle

introduced accidentally into Tanzania and West Africa, is relentlessly spreading

through maize-growing areas. This voracious pest feeds on stored maize,

cassava, wheat, sorghum, sweet potato, peanuts, and other foods. The destruction

it causes can be devastating; in tests in Tanzania up to 34 percent of cob maize in a

crib has been destroyed after only 3 months, and up to 70 percent of dried cassava

after only 4 months.

Insects get into even the best silos when the grain is added. Previously, there

were no cheap and effective controls for subsistence farmers to use. However,

some innovations follow that might help overcome the problem.

Sunshine

Researchers in India have found that farm produce can be disinfested by

"roasting" the bugs in the sun. They first wrap a square sheet of black

polyethylene around two slats of wood, leaving a "mouth" at either end. After

filling the resulting pouch with produce to a depth of 3 or 4 cm, they seal the ends

by weighing them down with slats of wood or bags of earth. Finally, they add a

covering of transparent polyethylene. This transmits sunlight through to the black

inner pouch and traps the heat inside.

The inventors, T.S. Krishnamurthy and colleagues,

report that insects, at

all stages of the life cycle, die when kept at 60°C for 10

At the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, India. This work is

described in Appropriate Technology, December 1991, p. 15.

APPENDIX B 294

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Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/2305.html

minutes. They tested pouches of varying sizes containing several kinds of

produce, including wheat, rice, pulses, and semolina. A pouch containing 40 kg

of peanuts, for example, reached an internal temperature of 67°C in just 4 hours.

Wheat took 6 hours to reach 61°C. No insects survived.

Neem Products

Neem (see Appendix A, page 279) is an Indian tree that has been introduced

widely in Africa and now can be found from Mauritania to Mauritius. People in

neem's homeland have long known that ingredients in its leaves and seeds can

disrupt the lives of storage insects. For thousands of years, Indians, for example,

have placed neem leaves in their grain bins to keep away troublesome bugs.

Now, scientists are finding that there is technical justification for this process and

commercial neem-based pesticides are already being employed in the United

States.

With all the neems in Africa (not to mention the new ones being planted

because of the rising international enthusiasm for this tree), neem-based methods

for controlling insects in grain stores are soon likely to be widely available.

Some German-sponsored research has already pioneered one approach that

employs the oil extracted from neem seeds.

In this project, neem oil has proved

effective against bruchid beetles—the prime pest of Africa's stored products.

Amounts as small as 2-3 ml per kg of stored food will protect grains and legume

seeds up to 6 months-long enough to overcome the critical period when bruchids

and other storage insect pests are active.

In Togo, a program for teaching farmers how to protect seeds with neem has

been under way for the past 15 years.

Now Niger, Senegal, and other nations

are following suit. Neem oil imparts no bitterness to the food. In trials, people

could not distinguish the seeds protected by it.

Probably in the long run, however, it will be neem leaves that are used most.

This is the simple technique employed since ancient times in India. The leaves

are merely added to the grain at various levels in the bin. The leaves eventually

dry out, turn to powder, and (for all intents and purposes) disappear. The

important thing is that bruchids, weevils, and flour beetles disappear also.

See the companion report Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems for more

information. For a list of BOSTID publications, see page 377.